Victim of Circumstance
by Felix Xavier Page
Summary: A story of one person's unintentional decent into the shadows.
1. Chapter I

Chapter One 

"You're lucky I was here late, kid," the owner of the dry cleaners said as he unlocked the door for Felix. He was obviously irritated.

            "Yeah, I know. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it." Felix apologized as he squeezed through the narrow opening the owner left for him. The owner grunted as he swiftly locked the door again. The owner went behind the register. Felix came up and dropped the books he carried on to the counter.

            "Ticket?" The owner asked. Felix dug into his pocket. He brought up a mound of change, keys and bits of trash. He plucked the claim ticket from out of the middle and handed it to him. The owner looked at the ticket for a second, then grinned with a mouth of rotten teeth.

            "Oh yeah! I remember you!" The owner exclaimed, shaking a finger at Felix. He turned to the small computer behind him and entered the ticket stub number. The rack snapped to life and presented Felix's suit, in pristine condition, inside a thin plastic bag. The owner snatched if off the hook and draped it over the counter. Felix smiled and took his credstick out of his pocket.

            "That'll be six hundred." The owner said, hardly able to contain his enthusiasm. Felix looked up, befuddled.

            "What?" Felix asked is disbelief. He glanced at the window behind him, then back at the owner. He pointed over his shoulder. "Your sign said sixteen ninety five to clean a suit! I saw the guy painting it four days ago. Why six hundred?" The owner leaned forward slightly.

            "Look, kid. I know what you did in that suit. I mean, blood, a bullet hole, buncha other repair jobs dat are also _obviously_ bullet holes, you don't get dat from studying." He said, cocking his head sharply at Felix's books. "Now, yous can pay da seventeen nuyen, but I calls Lone Star, and let 'em know what da address is on yer ticket. Or you can pay me six hundred and I keep quiet. Who knows? I may even repair other 'mishaps', know what I mean?" Felix growled, but still stuck his credstick into the pay slot and transferred six hundred nuyen into the store's account. Felix snatched it back, scooped up his books and his suit and walked to the door.

            "Hey, who knows? Maybe I call the Star anyway?" The owner chuckled. Felix stopped, clinching his teeth. He turned around, dropping his suit and all but one of his books. He looked at the owner straight in the eye, and when he was sure he held his gaze, Felix made his eyes flash quickly with light; a spell his picked up that afternoon. The owner jumped slightly.

            "Can you see what's in my hand?" Felix asked in a barely calm voice, holding the book in front of him, the title "Volume XXVII: Spells of Combat and Defense" towards the owner.

            "Uh, I don't know," the owner said, looking around him. "A book."

            "And what does it say?" Felix said, approaching the counter.

            "Hey, frag your magic! I'm calling da cops!" The owner said, reaching for the phone. Felix stepped forward and hurled the book at the phone sitting behind the counter, knocking it on to the floor with a clatter. Felix then jumped for the owner and snatched his collar. Felix landed with his stomach on the counter, pulling the owner onto his knees, nose to nose with him. Felix flashed his eyes again.

            "Now listen to me, you puke. What's six hundred minus seventeen?" Felix growled through his teeth.

            "Hey, man, just…"

            "WHAT… is six hundred minus seventeen!?" Felix roared.

            "AAAA! Five hundred and eighty-seven, man!" The owner exclaimed. Felix leaned far over the counter and picked his book up that lay open beside the phone. He stood up and let the owner go.

            "You keep that on my tab. You hear me? When I come in with my suit, weather it's wrinkled, or it's torn to freakin' shreds, you subtract that from my total."

            "Y… yeah. Okay."

            "And I swear to you, if you call the cops, I'll pay my fine, come back here and scramble your brain inside your skull without leaving a scratch!" Felix turned, scooped up his stuff, and stomped to the door. "And it's not even seven o'clock yet! How could you be closed!" He raised his foot with his last step and kicked at the door, fully expecting it to break the lock. It didn't. This irritated Felix to the boiling point.

            "Unlock this door!" Felix yelled. The owner ran up to the door, unlocked it, and let Felix out. Felix stormed out with a pile of stuff in his arms. He stomped down the street for a few paces, but suddenly stopped. He leaned against the wall and started to laugh, totally surprised with what he did.

            "I can't believe that." He said to himself. He looked around and laughed. "Wow, I'm vicious!" He adjusted the books under his arm, slung his suit over his shoulder and walked home whistling.

            As Felix was walking up the stairs to his apartment, it was obvious that someone on his floor was smoking marijuana. It didn't phase him a bit until he realized that the smell was coming from his apartment.

            "You're not doing what I think you're doing…" Felix sighed to himself. He pushed the door open. Felix saw, across the utter disaster that was his apartment, Bones in the kitchen mopping. He was singing along to something blasting his brain from a pair of enormous headphones, a crooked joint bouncing up and down on the side of his mouth.

            "Bones!" Felix exclaimed. He dropped his stuff on an unoccupied spot on the couch and walked up to him, avoiding the trash on the floor. He snatched the joint out of his mouth and slapped him across the back of his head.

            "Ow! What the hell, man!" Bones exclaimed. He pulled his headphones off and saw Felix. "Damn man, you're getting violent lately."

            "I've got nearly eight thousand bucks tied up in a security deposit, man! I'm not gonna lose it because my friends wanna blaze up while they're cleaning up after themselves." Felix tossed the joint into the sink. It hissed slightly. Bones gasped.

            "My god! That was obscene!" Bones choked, his hand clutching the shirt above his heart.

            "Yeah, yeah. You've probably got a pound more of it at your place." Felix said, walking back into the living room. He pushed a trash bag off the couch and sat down.

            "I don't know why you're so uptight. I'm the landlord." Bones said, pushing the mop around. He paused and dug around in the pocket of his red and green tie-died sweatpants and produced another crooked joint. He straightened it out, leaned over the stove and lit it from the burner. Felix rolled his eyes, knowing his effort was futile.

"No, you're just the dude who takes the money. It's the rich bastard that owns the building that comes in once a month who decides if I get my deposit back." Felix replied over the back of the couch.

"So what did your lazy ass do today while I was slaving away, trying to make this place conform to the strict standards of Mr. Page?" Bones said, wringing the mop out in the sink.

            "Studied. Same as the last four days." Felix sighed. "Oh!" Felix sat up and turned to Bones. "I think the dry cleaners on the corner of Eighth and University is gonna have me locked up for assault."

            "Yeah? Why's that?" Bones asked, leaning against his mop.

            "That bastard tried to bleed six hundred nuyen off me. Said he was gonna tell the Star about my suit with the hole in it."

            "Yeah?"

            "Yeah. I said I would kill him if he did." Felix said.

            "Hell, you _are_ getting violent, aren't you?" Bones remarked.

            "It's them damned combat spells I've been studying. They alter your personality a little. You should have seen me during my second quarter. When I was learning healing and detoxification spells, I didn't speak for a week and slept nearly fourteen hours a day."

            "You don't say." Bone replied, resting his chin on the end of the mop. "Well, that same dude tried sticking me for two grand when he found a fistful of sniper rounds in my jacket." Felix laughed.

            "Don't those cost, like, ten nuyen a piece? Why did you leave a fistful in you pocket?"

            "Fifteen nuyen, but eh, I've got a poor memory sometimes." Bones continued pushing the mop across the floor.

            "So what happened?"

            "I punched him the face and told him to shut up about it. He scares easily."

            "No kidding." Felix said.

"Say," Bones said, cocking his head at the pile of University library books. "Don't they have that shit on a computer?"

"Yeah, but I can't stand learning spells off of one. This way is easier. Well, in my opinion, anyway." Felix explained. He pointed at the garbage bags on the couch and next to the door. "You think you'll be done tonight?"

            "Yeah. Got most everything taken care of. Had to replace the mattress, though."

            "I _told_ you!" Felix growled, pointing his finger at Bones but smiling. "But no, 'all I need is a hair dryer and it'll be fine'. Bah! Now my entire room smells like Heineken."

            "Not any more. Got a dozen of those NoMoFunk bombs. It's a little foggy in there, but it doesn't smell like Germany's finest lager." 

"Heineken's brewed in Holland."

"Whatever. Get up a sec. I think there might be something under the couch." Bones said. Felix got up and Bones went to the end, bent down and tried to pick it up. After a few seconds of grunting and gasping, he let go and sat on the end of the couch.

"Christ, man! What's up with your couch?" Bones exclaimed. "Weighs a goddamned ton!"

"It does not. You're just a skinny pothead." Felix said. "C'mon, get down there and try it again. I'll show you something I picked up my junior year." Bones shook his head slightly and bent back down to grab the couch from the base. Felix cast a strength augmentation spell on Bones; a relatively small one, since he didn't feel like suffering the drain effects. Suddenly, Bones straightened rapidly, and lifted the couch completely off the floor. It flipped one hundred eighty degrees in the air, tossing cushions and debris from between the all over the apartment. It landed upside down with an incredible thud.

"Fucking shit!" Bones exclaimed. "What the hell?" Felix was leaning on the wall, laughing as hard as he had ever laughed before.

"Oh, god, how I love you mundanes!" Felix gasped. "A constant supply of amusement!" From the floor, something thumped four times.

"You kids better knock it off! I'll call the police!" A man's voice called.

"Randall!" Bones called. He got on his knees and shouted at the floor. "You better shut up or I'll come down and knock you out!" He got no response.

"Okay, now you wanna put my couch back?" Felix asked. "The spell should still be working." Bones grabbed the couch, lifted it over his head, flipped it around and dropped it back on the floor.

"Hell yeah. I should go back to boxing." Bones said. "But I bet they outlaw shit like this." Felix nodded.

"I'll help with the rest of this. I'd like to be able to sleep in a clean place tonight." Felix said. Both Felix and Bones continued cleaning the apartment until nearly three in the morning. By the time Felix said "good night" to Bones, the place was in pristine condition. One would never know that a raging party took place a week prior. Felix tossed his clothes onto the floor and dropped into bed as soon as the display on the clock read 3:01. At 3:02 AM, the phone rang.

            "You have got to be kidding me..." Felix groaned. He reached over to the phone. "Uh, hello?"

            "Fletch?" Circumstance asked. "That you?"

            "Circumstance?" Felix asked. He sat up, instantly awake. "Um..." He ran his fingers straight back across his head through his hair, searching for something to say. "I didn't know I gave you my phone number."

            "You didn't. Say, can I ask you a favor?" Circumstance asked. Felix swiveled to sit on the edge of the bed.

            "Uh, yeah, I guess."

            "Can I stay at your place tonight?"

            "Tonight? Why?"

            "My apartment's been fumigated." Circumstance replied.

            "Oh. Well, sure. I guess. My address is..."

            "Can I get a ride, too?"

            "I thought..."

            "My car was fumigated, too. Thanks!" The phone clicked to the dial tone and an address rolled out of the bottom of the phone, along with a quickly hand drawn map to Circumstance's apartment. On the side, she wrote "Thanks!" with a heart at the bottom of the exclamation point. Felix fell back on the bed.

            "Criminy." Felix sighed to himself. "Of all the things I don't feel like doing at the moment..." He got up, put the same clothes back on and went into the bathroom.

            "Why are you even doing this?" Felix said to himself standing in front of the mirror. He smeared toothpaste on his toothbrush and stuck it in his mouth. He smiled slightly. "You know why. I don't even know why you do it, Page old boy. She's probably already got a relationship." He chuckled to himself slightly. "A drug running troll with a gun grafted into his head. 'Urrgh. Me troll. Will kill itty-bitty magician. Rarrgh!'" He was rather amused with his imitation of a rabid troll.

Felix locked his apartment and walked a few doors down to Bones' apartment. The door was open. Felix saw him on the couch, a beer in one hand and a joint in the other. A zip-lock baggie nearly depleted of grass laid on the coffee table Bones had his feet on. Across from him was a television with what appeared to be scrambled porn.

            "Why don't you just order it?" Felix asked, leaning against the doorframe. He studied the bent negative image, trying to figure out if he was watching a foot or an earlobe.

            "I'm too damn cheap." Bones replied, his eyes glued to the screen.

            "Why don't you steal it?"

            "I'm not that stupid."

            "Ha!" Felix exclaimed. Bones looked at him, pointing to him with two fingers, the joint pinched between them. 

            "Stealing trid programming is a whole different barrel of shit than stealing other stuff. The junction box is locked tighter than a... well, it's locked pretty damn tight. And I don't need a fine bigger than the payroll of the last job I did. I'll stick to this." Bones placed the joint between his lips and turned back to the screen as soon as the image straightened out. For four seconds, a negative image of an orgy came across. Then it flickered and scrambled again.

            "Now _that's _entertainment!" Bones exclaimed between his lips and around the joint, pointing at the screen. Felix couldn't help but laugh.

            "Bloody marvelous. Say, can I borrow your van?" Felix asked.

            "Yeah, I guess. Why?" Bones said, digging through his pocket and tossed the keys at Felix.

            "Gonna pick up Circumstance. Said she needs a place to stay tonight." Bones looked back at Felix.

            "Really? Circumstance? I busted my zipper upon first sight! Man, some guys have all the luck! Hey, bring her here, and we can party." Bones said.

            "It's not like that. Her apartment is not livable, so she needs a place to stay tonight."

            "Translation: I'm gonna hump her 'til she can't see straight." Bones said sternly. "Hell, forget this." Bones waved his hand at the television and stood up, mashing the remains of his joint in a saucer. "Let me get my video camera. You won't be scrambled while you and her are making like mad weasels."

            "Yeah, right. I don't 'release the beast' on every woman I meet, and it isn't going to happen tonight either. Hell, I hardly know her, man! You're gonna have to learn that virtue." Felix said. He held the keys up. "Thanks. Be back in a few." Felix walked down to the parking garage under the apartment complex. Bones' van looked, as usual, much like his apartment. Felix spent ten minutes clearing enough trash to make room for Circumstance to sit down. Eventually, he got in and drove off towards Circumstance's directions. 

The surrounding environment changed as Felix drove. The buildings progressively looked worse. More trash lined the streets. The street was falling into worse stages of disrepair. The address Circumstance provided seemed to point to the worst part of all Seattle. Eventually, he found the address Circumstance lived at. Circumstance was standing in front of the decrepit apartment complex, quite possibly the worst one in the neighborhood. She waved her arms over her head as she saw Bones' van. She was dressed in flannel pajamas, big, poofy purple slippers and a rather large overcoat. She did not look comfortable.

            "Oh, you're such a lifesaver!" Circumstance exclaimed as Felix got out of the van. "I have to get some stuff. C'mon." Circumstance headed back into the building. Felix followed. He was nearly knocked back by the smell of filth and urine in the lobby. A few people were curled up anywhere they could find a spot to sleep. The pool table seemed to be a popular spot; four people laid across it, like sardines in a can. Felix went to the elevator door and punched the "up" button.

            "Yeah, that's it." Circumstance grunted. "That's never worked." Felix sighed and followed Circumstance up eight flights of stairs, which also seemed to be a popular place to sleep. Circumstance then walked down a hall and stopped at a door that looked, quite literally, like Swiss cheese.

            "Wow. I like their fumigation technique." Felix commented as Circumstance unlocked the door. She didn't reply as she walked into her apartment. Felix followed her for a few steps and stopped in his tracks. The walls, the furniture, the ceiling, and everything else in the apartment were riddled with bullet holes. Even the floor had been punctured by slugs. Looking through the holes, he could see that the apartments below and around her apartment were currently vacant. Circumstance proceeded into the bedroom. Out of instinct, Felix went for the couch to sit down. However, when he got a good look at it, he decided to stand.

            "So, uh, if I may ask, what happened to your apartment?" Felix shouted into the bedroom down the hall from the living room.

            "You ever say 'no' to a horny Yakuza boss?" Circumstance shouted back.

            "Yak… a what boss?" Felix asked. He had never heard the term before.

            "Japanese Mafia."

            "Oh. Uh, no."

            "I did." Circumstance said, coming out of the bedroom. She held a blue dress in front of her. Beams of light from the shattered apartment window passed through it. "Bloody savages." She tossed it to the floor. She went back into the bedroom and got a small white duffel bag with a tired looking panda on the side. "Okay, let's go. At least they left me a _few clothes." Felix and Circumstance went back out the same way they came in and climbed in the van._

            "So where's your car?" Felix asked.

            "There." Circumstance said, pointing out the window to a lump of twisted metal parked on the street that looked slightly like a vehicle. It smoldered brightly in the shadows of the apartments. A couple of men warmed their hands by it.

            "Nearly twenty-nine thousand big ones for that car. Paid in old-fashioned paper cash. Took half a year of runs and saving like mad." Circumstance sighed, shaking her head. "Forget this joint. Let's go." Felix nodded and drove back to his apartment complex in silence. When they arrived, Felix trudged up the stairs and Circumstance followed. He unlocked his door and pushed it open. Circumstance walked straight in. Felix flicked the light and Circumstance stopped.

            "You smoke weed?" Circumstance asked, turning to Felix with a look of disbelief.

            "No, I do not. That's horrid smell is Bones' doing." Felix sighed and exclaimed at once. Circumstance silently said "oh", then wondered if she should apologize for assuming such a thing.

            "You have a really nice place here. I can tell you've been cleaning." Circumstance said, looking around the house. She laughed slightly. "That's the second sign you're not a runner. Most guys I know sleep on top of a foot of garbage. You… you live nice." Felix retrieved a blanket from his room and dropped it on the couch.

            "Thank you. It's a shame I'm not a very good example to the other vermin. Like Bones, for example. I'm going to go to bed." Felix yawned. "Help yourself to whatever in the ice box. Good night."

            "Thanks for letting me stay here for the night." Circumstance said. "You're a lifesaver." Felix smiled.

            "You're always welcome." Felix closed the door, shed his clothing, climbed in bed and fell asleep.


	2. Chapter II

Chapter Two

Felix had his alarm set for noon. However, when he woke up, the clock said 9:02. He sat up and smelled something he hadn't smelled for years. He jumped out of bed and wrapped his robe around him. When he came into the living room, he saw Circumstance standing at the dinner table against the wall, dressed in the same flannel pajamas and big, poofy purple slippers from the previous night, setting the table. She turned to see Felix coming out of the bedroom.

            "Ah, you're up." Circumstance said. "Sit, sit." Felix, although still confused and half asleep, obeyed. He took a seat with his back to the kitchen. Circumstance brought a glass of orange juice to him. "I can't believe it. I haven't had real food for a month. I've been living off of instant ramen and soy burgers for months now." She giggled slightly. "Imagine my surprise when I see a refrigerator full of the authentic article."

            "What can I say?" Felix replied as he shrugged his shoulders. "Allergic to soy. It's not the rent around here that gives me a problem. It's the food bill." Felix explained. Circumstance brought the two plates to the table. Felix attacked breakfast like a starving wolverine, barely pausing from putting food in his mouth to take a drink of orange juice periodically. He hadn't consumed well-prepared food in his apartment since he moved in. They ate in silence save for the silverware clinking on the plates and the glasses hitting the table. When Felix finished, he leaned back and sighed.

            "My god! I haven't eaten that well since I left home for the University." Felix exclaimed. He idly picked a stray piece of bacon from his front teeth. "I'm so bad at cooking, I burn water, so I have to tolerate it. Thanks."

            "You're always welcome. I took a class at the local CC to satisfy my parole officer. Never thought I'd have a chance to use it." Circumstance said.

"Parole? What for?" Felix asked, looking up at her.

"Jack without a permit." She too leaned back and sighed. "So what do you have planned today?"

            "I am headed out to Tacoma to visit my parents. Explain to them why I won't be graduating." Circumstance looked up at Felix, her eyebrows arched in interest.

            "How long are you planning to stay out there?" Circumstance asked with obviously repressed enthusiasm.

            "Uh, 'bout three days. Four if I feel like it. Not like I have classes to worry about anymore." Felix said.

            "I love Tacoma. The area is really pretty. I wish I could head up there, too." Circumstance sighed. "But now, I have to find a new apartment. Can't stay here forever right? Hope you have fun." Felix exhaled slightly, thinking.

            "You want to come up with me to Tacoma?" Felix said. Circumstance looked at him in surprise. Felix thought quickly for a feasible motive, other than he wanted to be next to her. "The ride gets long and boring. So do my parents. I'd love to have company." Circumstance's face beamed. 

            "Do you suppose I have time to go get a few things for the trip?"

            "Uh, yeah, I guess. I wasn't going to go until about one." Felix said. Circumstance jumped out of her seat, went to her small gym bag and withdrew her only other change of clothes. Suddenly, she pulled her pajamas off, totally baring all in front of Felix. He dropped his jaw in surprise and snapped his head in the other direction. She threw her clothes on and trotted out of the house, throwing a quick wave behind her back. Felix sat for a second in disbelief.

            "I don't know if she's flirting with me or torturing me." Felix said, shaking her head. He got up and took the two plates into the kitchen. He immediately wished he hadn't. The kitchen looked as if a food fight had taken place.

            "Why can't I know people that live, like, well, people?" Felix sighed, and started to run water in the sink.

* * * * * * *

Circumstance came back three hours later carrying two large white plastic bags in each hand. Felix was on the couch, flipping through the channels on the trid.

            "I love the University district. Everything's jammed together. So easy to find." She sat down in the middle of the floor, opening packages and removing price tags, putting everything in a new canvas gym bag she bought. Eventually, she worked it down to a single packed gym bag and a pile of trash. She wadded up the trash, jammed it into her old gym bag and went to the kitchen to deposit it all into the trash chute. She stopped right in the middle of the kitchen.

            "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to…" Circumstance said lamentably. 

            "Naw, don't worry about it. Payment for the meal." Felix smiled. Circumstance did as well. She tossed her trash.

            "Well, if you're ready, I suppose we can go." Felix said. He stood up, stretched, and went into the bedroom to get his own bag. Felix locked up, and followed by Circumstance, he proceeded down the stairs and down the street half a block to the local car rental agency. The two walked in and straight up to the counter.

            "Good morning, sir. How may I help you today?" The clerk behind the counter asked in an appropriately cheerful corporate prescribed attitude.

            "Hello. I need a car for three days." Felix said, putting his bag down.

            "Certainly. We have luxury, mid-sized…"

            "Cheap. I want the cheapest car." Felix interrupted, smiling slightly. The clerk did the same.

            "If you could fill out the form there on the monitor." The clerk pointed to a screen in the top of the counter. Felix selected all the appropriate choices in each section automatically. He did so every three months.

            "Okay, and your method of payment?" The clerk asked. Felix presented his credstick.

            "Um, company policy requires a second form of identification when using a certified credstick, sir." Felix looked at the credstick in his fingers. It wasn't the one with all his vital information. It was the one he received from the job he preformed with Circumstance.

            "Oh, sure." Felix said, and reached into his wallet. He withdrew his green faculty card and presented it and the credstick.

            "Ah, very good." The clerk looked at the card for a moment. "Hey, you work at the University? Must be an interesting job." The clerk said, scanning the card through the slot along the side of the computer. He placed it on the counter beyond Felix's reach. After waiting for nearly a full minute, the computer finally clicked slightly and the screen flashed.

            "Um, I'm sorry, Mr. Page, but…" The clerk coughed slightly. "…it doesn't seem that your SIN number even exists." The clerk said in manufactured disbelief. "I'll scan it again."

            "Yeah, that'll work." Circumstance said. She turned to Felix. "Be right back. Have to go get something." Circumstance quickly left the building before Felix could respond. Felix started to feel nervous. A security guard from outside the building moved next to the entrance to prevent any hasty retreats. A very deep sense of dread came over him. However, just before the computer was due to return a response similar to the previous one, the computer beeped happily and a receipt began printing. Felix sighed silently.

            "I don't know what happened. Guess it didn't scan right the first time. Sorry for making you wait." The clerk apologized, handing Felix his receipt, the credstick and a set of keys.

            "Yeah." Felix replied, trying to keep his voice from shaking. "No problem." Felix looked at the total on the tiny piece of paper and paused. He looked up.

            "Am I reading this right? The charge is only sixteen eighteen?"

            "Yes sir! You've earned one thousand SmartCar travel points. Those are good for a week of free rental. You're only responsible for tax."

            "Oh wow.' Felix replied flatly. "Didn't know that."

            "Didn't know that? Sir, I'd figure you'd watch those points closely. We don't give out many at a time." The clerk said, leaning on the counter. "Oh!" The clerk slid the green card off the counter and handed it back to Felix. "Can't forget that. I hear it's difficult getting those replaced."

            "Yeah." Felix picked up his bag and Circumstance's, still in a state of semi-confusion. As he walked back to the door, Circumstance came trotting back in.

            "Oh, good. Everything taken care of?" Circumstance asked.

            "Uh, yeah, I think so." 

            "Great. Let's go." Circumstance took her bag and walked with Felix to the lot in the back.

            "So, did you encounter any problems?" Circumstance asked.

            "I dunno." Felix looked over his shoulder. "You think they're watching us?" Circumstance laughed.

            "Oh, come now. Don't you like having the car for a week nearly free?"

            "What? What happened?" Felix exclaimed in a whisper.

            "Not me. Called a friend really quick. He tapped in and filled in the blanks in the agency database. Whoever erased you from the database knows what he's doing. I wish my record was expunged that cleanly." Circumstance opened the door, tossed her bag on the floor of the passenger side and climbed in. Felix tossed his bag in the back and also climbed in. Then the whole thing sunk in.

            "Oh my God! I forgot all about that!" Felix said, pounding his fists into the steering wheel. Circumstance crossed her arms and lowered her eyebrows.

            "You're damn lucky to have me around, Fletch. I mean, that's the third dead giveaway that you're not a runner! You have your records erased and you go out and try to rent a car by using your University ID card? Come on, man! You'd be some Lone Star sex toy if it weren't for me." Circumstance scolded. Felix shook his head, started the car and started driving out of the parking lot.

            "That's right. I'm not a runner, so please, my name's Felix. Felix Page." Felix said, extending his right hand as he drove with his left. Circumstance accepted it and shook it vigorously.

            "Nice to meet you. Emily Post." Emily replied. There was a moment of silence. Felix started to chuckle, then went into a full-on laugh.

            "What?" Emily asked, slightly irritated. "I can't have the same name as another person?"

            "Not with your profession!" Felix exclaimed. "I mean, why don't you write 'Shadowrunning Etiquette'! You'd make a freakin' bundle!"

            "Real fucking cute. You finished?" Emily asked, crossing her arms angrily.

            "Yeah…" Felix said, breathing hard. "No, I'm not!" He started laughing even harder. Emily punched him in the shoulder. Felix calmed down.

            "Alright, alright. I'm sorry." Felix said. "And before I forget, thanks for getting me out of that situation back there."

            "You're always welcome." Emily responded.

* * * * * * *

The drive from Seattle to Tacoma is rather interesting. Slowly and steadily the signs of the ultracivilization of Seattle vanished. Gigantic power lines high atop aluminum pillars gave way to a single wire draped across ancient, time petrified wooden poles. Buildings became shorter. Traffic thinned out until Felix and Emily were the only ones on the road amidst thousands of acres of forests.

            "It's been four years." Emily said. "I've been in that shithole of a city for four years. The most open and unused space I've seen was fifty square feet of dirt in the park." She looked out to the acres of undeveloped land covered with grass almost a meter high between the tightly packed sequoias.

            "Aw, c'mon. Seattle isn't so bad. At least you're never bored. All I had to do back home was read. Or the pinball machine at the neighbor's house." Emily chuckled.

            "Yeah, it isn't boring. Sometimes it's damn funny."

            "Running? Funny?" Felix asked in satirical disbelief. "How so?"

            "Well, let me think." Emily sat in silence for a few seconds, pondering, then exclaimed. "Okay!" She clapped her hands excitedly like a little girl. "There was this one time me and three other guys were doing a series of chores for this Johnson, about two, maybe three years ago. Buncha dumb stuff that he could have taken care of himself, I'm sure. But anyway, after he gets done paying us, or screwing with us for that matter, he gives us this offer for another run. He wants us to geek the vice president of  Aztechnology so he can throw his hat into the ring for the job. Not only was the job ridiculous, but he offers something stupid, about like seven grand or so. Well, the leader of our party knew it was all bunk. His name was something like Bad-ass, or something like that in another language. He was the biggest troll I had ever seen. Damn near three meters tall, and probably weighed in at five hundred kilos. How does he show he's displeased with the offer? He jumps up on the desk, and how that desk held up to the sheer bulk I still have no idea, but he pulls down his pants, and without saying a word, he takes a crap right there!" Emily was smiling broadly recounting the experience while Felix was bursting with laughter.

            "And I mean this isn't just ordinary load. This is dense, horrible, troll, feces." Emily stated her last few words with heavy emphasis on each one. "By god, I swear he squeezed out a loaf as thick as my leg and twice as heavy. While he's doing this, the Johnson is just sitting there, as cool as Death himself. But, after Bad-ass pinches this turd off, he grabs him by the back of his head and wipes his ass with this dude's face!" Felix was laughing so hard by that point he pulled over onto the dirt shoulder and shifted into park. "Now there's no way this guy can be cool anymore. He's flailing everywhere, screaming, trying to clear his eyes, while we just leave the office, like some badder'n Hell outlaws on the trid. So, yes, I'd have to say that was the funniest thing that's happened to me while in Seattle for four years." Emily and Felix laughed for a solid minute at the story. Felix started taking deep breaths and looked down the highway. It continued straight ahead for miles, but the forest ended a few yards ahead, letting unbroken scrubland take over for a mile or so.

            "Hey, uh, Emily?" Felix asked, squinting hard. "I can barely see. Is that a car down the ways a bit?" Emily looked, squinting also.

            "Damn, I can't see squat in the sun. Why?" Emily asked.

            "Well, if he's stranded, I'm gonna help him out." Felix said, and started the car again. Emily looked at him strangely.

            "What? Dude, that's the fourth sign you're not a runner. Why are you even bothering to stop?" Emily asked sternly.

            "Because I'm not a runner." Felix replied, smiling back at Emily. Felix drove a little while and rolled up a few meters behind the other car. The bright summer sun and the reflection off the back of the window made the car and the person standing next to it extremely difficult to see. All Felix could make out was the tall silhouette of a person, the rear end of the car, which was rusted and decaying, and steam blasting out of the left side of the car. Felix stopped the car, turned it off, and opened the door. However, he didn't get out. He paused for a second. He looked behind him. The trees were still from lack of any breeze.

            "Hey, Emily, is the steam coming out of the left side of the car?" Felix asked.

            "Uh, yeah, I guess. Why?"

            "That car isn't broken down." Felix said, and closed the door. Suddenly, Emily grabbed Felix's hair and jerked him down against the middle of the seat. They were just in time to see a trio of slugs blast through the windshield.

            "Holy…! What the hell!" Felix exclaimed. Emily growled.

            "You had to stop and help." She reached into the bag at her feet and pulled out the gigantic gun that Felix stole from her on his first run.

            "Damn! You bring that everywhere, don't you?" Felix asked.

            "Aren't you glad I do now?" Emily replied. She sat up and fired three shots back at the car in front of them. The rear window shattered, killing the glare into the car. The silhouette dove for cover behind the front of the car. Emily lay back down across the middle of the seat.

            "Dammit. Old trick. Paints the back window black so it turns into a mirror. That way, the reflection is so damn bright no one can see the drekhead shoot 'em." Emily explained. Another round punched through the windshield. Emily opened the door, kneeled behind it and unloaded what was left in the clip into the car. As she was changing the clip, another round fired off, ricocheted off the ground and struck Emily in the leg from under the car door. She cringed but continued loading.

            "Do something!" Emily growled at Felix.

            "Okay. Just don't fire for a second." Felix said and suddenly went invisible. Emily blinked in disbelief.

            "Uh, sure." Emily replied. Felix got out and slowly walked to the front of the other car, careful not to make any noise. There he saw, crouched against the front of the car, was a very large orc. Many people might have confused this orc for a troll. He held a gun very similar to Emily's, but it looked puny in his huge hairy hands. Felix looked around. There was no way Felix could take him, even invisibly. Even if he tossed the nastiest spell he knew at him, the orc would figure out what was happening and spray the remainder of the clip in Felix's direction. Felix looked around, thinking hard for an idea. He glanced into the car. There, dangling from the ignition hung a set of keys. Suddenly, Felix had and idea. He slid through the open window and turned the ignition. The orc looked up over the hood just in time to see Felix drop his invisibility spell, smile, and smash the accelerator with the palm of his hand. The car struck the orc and rolled over him, rocking madly as the tires climbed over the frame of the orc. After the second tire came down, Felix hit the brake and turned off the car.

            "Yeah! Felix! That was so cool!" Emily shouted, standing on one leg. Felix rushed over to Emily, dropped to his knees and looked at Emily's wound. A large chunk of flesh was gone and blood flowed at an incredible rate. Felix put his hands over the bloody mess and cast a healing spell. The blood stopped flowing and the wound started to slowly close. However, Felix immediately grabbed his head and dropped to the side, making a great deal of noise grunting and groaning.

            "Jesus! What's wrong?" Emily asked, dropping to Felix's side.

            "Oh, nothing, nothing." Felix replied through clinched teeth. He attempted to sit up with one hand on his head. He had a pretty good idea just how bad Emily had been shot. "Just put too much into the spell, that's all." He coughed a couple times. He shivered from pain. "Sorta like magical recoil. How's the leg?"

            "Fine now. You okay?" Emily asked.

            "I…" Felix passed out.


	3. Chapter III

Chapter Three

Felix awoke well into the night in the front passenger seat of the car. He could see the crescent moon above, it's beams refracting into dozens of little rainbows in the shattered windshield. He yawned, sat up, and much to his surprise, saw that he was in the driveway of his house. The lights were on inside the house, and he could hear faint voices.  He looked at his hands. They were no longer bloody.

            "Wow, what happened, Emily?" Felix thought to himself. "How'd you find my place? And for that matter, did you clean yourself up too before meeting my parents?" He sighed and got out of the car, slightly nervous. The gravel crunching under his feet as he walked up to the house was nostalgic. Inside, he saw his parents and Emily sitting at the kitchen table, talking. He stepped in a little further and let the screen door slam behind him. All three heads turned to him.

            "Felix!" Felix's mother responded, her voice high enough to be a soprano. They trotted up to each other and hugged. Felix's mother was short, slightly pudgy and graying at the edge of her forehead and temples. Her face and her bright, blue eyes looked much younger than her body; an image of someone just waiting to be a grandmother. Out of habit, Felix picked her up slightly and let her down. When he let go of his mother, he saw his father standing behind his mother, waiting. He had his hands in the pockets of his slacks. Felix's father was still in his work clothes, but his tie was loosened a great deal. He extended his hand for a handshake. Felix snatched his hand pulled his father toward him with a jerk, and bear hugged him. Felix's father groaned slightly. Felix instantly realized what happened and released.

            "Son, you have to watch my back. Remember?" His father said his hand on the small of his back.

            "Yeah, sorry about that." Felix replied. He came into the kitchen and took the last empty seat between his mother and Emily.

            "You've been napping quite a while." Emily said. "I was beginning to think you died."

            "Naw. Car rides always knock me out." Felix said, stretching. He quickly looked down at Emily's leg. She cleaned up quite well, making it look as though nothing had happened.

            "Just as well. Gave me to find out from Tom and Amelia who you really are." Emily replied. "And, by the way, your parents are _not_ long and boring."

            "Felix!" Amelia scolded, smiling slightly. Felix ducked his head as if his mother tossed a pot at him. She turned to Emily. "But let me show you my orchids. They should be blooming now." Amelia and Emily got up and went into the back through the back door in the kitchen. Tom turned to Felix. 

            "Oh hell. Here it comes." Felix thought, swallowing with dread.

            "So." Tom begun. "I called the University today." He looked down at his hands crossed on the table.

            "For my grades. I know." Felix replied, also looking down.

            "Well, I don't think scolding you is going to make a difference anymore. Just have to come on back home." His voice was slightly forgiving, and Felix relaxed slightly. "There's a lot of openings out toward Olympia for wage mages. Most don't require a diploma." Tom explained. Felix nearly shuttered. He absolutely hated the idea of moving back home and leaving a fairly exciting and independent life, one certainly much more exciting than home.

            "Actually, I don't have to move back home." Felix quickly responded. Tom looked up, raising his eyebrows. "Yeah, I got a job."

            "Oh?" Tom replied. "Doing what?" Felix suddenly panicked. That was another character flaw of his; reacting, and lying, much too quickly.

            "A… small office job." Felix said.

            "Office job? Did you get a jack installed?"

            "Well, no."

            "Then how on _Earth_ did you find an office job in Seattle without a jack?" Tom asked. Suddenly, Felix felt his father start to push at him with magic. The same kind of magic Felix used to get himself out of trouble. Felix's father used this type of magic to cut through his occasional lies. Felix swallowed hard.

            "Remember, I own a polygraph." Tom said. Felix sighed.

            "Alright, alright. You can stop the mind probe. I guess you want the truth."

            "Yup." Tom replied, leaning back in his chair. He crossed his arms.

            "Well, I did get a job. But, well, it was retrieving some stolen documents. So, kinda in order to do that, I had to, uh, steal them back." Felix explained, wringing his hands. Tom cocked one of his eyebrows.

            "Really?"

            "Uh, yeah." Felix laughed weakly. "Sorta like those shadowrunners on those trid shows, I guess."

            "So you blasted your way into a building, sprayed gunfire everywhere and killed any policeman and security guard that was happened to be in the way?" Tom asked, his voice slightly raised.

            "No! No, nothing like that!" Felix exclaimed. "No, it was pretty simple. I didn't kill anyone. Sure, I messed them up some, but I didn't kill anyone." Tom exhaled. He stood up with some effort.

            "Come with me into the office, so your mother doesn't accidentally hear what I have to say to you." Tom said sternly. Felix meekly nodded and followed his father down the hall to his office.

            "He's gonna kill me. He's gonna really kill me and magically erase any proof of my existence." Felix thought. Tom stepped into the office, followed eventually by Felix.

            Felix surveyed the walls of his father's office, just as he always did when he was permitted to enter. The wall behind his father's desk was a mosaic of degrees and certificates. The other three walls were similarly tiled with pictures of places he had traveled and photos of him and top executives from megacorporations around the globe. The furniture alone could have easily paid Felix's tuition. Felix stood in the middle of it all, feeling quite insignificant. Tom sat behind his desk and leaned forward into the moonlight coming from the only window in the dark room. He looked exactly like Felix, the only differences being clusters of small wrinkles around his mouth and eyes and a moustache, still the same color as his dark brown hair.

            "Felix?" Tom asked.

            "Yes, Dad?" Felix asked back.

            "Please sit down." Felix looked at the huge chair that sat before the desk. Of all the things he was not allowed to do in this office, sitting in that chair was the absolute worst sin.

            "Yeah?" Felix asked.

            "Yes. You're not eleven years old anymore. I'm sure you won't ruin the leather." Tom said, smiling slightly. Felix hesitated for a second, recalling the time when he _did_ ruin the chair, but then slowly leaned into it. He felt eleven years old again, a sense of great significance and insignificance at the same time. Tom sighed, then inhaled slowly.

            "Son, what I'm going to say to you may be a bit unsettling. You see, when I was your age, when I graduated from the University, I, well, did the same thing you did." Felix stared at he father for a second, then snapped to attention.

            "Then you realized what a mistake it was, like I did." Felix said in an attempt to help his position.

            "No, actually, um, I was a runner for nearly twenty years before a nearly fatal injury put me out of commission." Tom said, looking down at the desk. Felix's jaw dropped.

            "What?" Felix asked, barely able to even to reply to his father's statement.

            "Let me explain how it all started." He stood up and turned to the window, looking at the moon. "Let's go back, um, twenty-four years. I graduated at the top of the class at UT of Seattle. The next day, I spend nineteen hours entertaining some corporation president's guests for about seven nuyen an hour. Now, I hear they're getting twenty-three an hour. Anyway, I came home absolutely exhausted. I get a call from a man who said he was at the party and was impressed with what I could do. He asked if I wanted a job. I said I already had one, but his job offered eleven thousand for one evening's work. Eleven thousand! I accepted, too naïve to even ask myself if it was illegal." Tom paused and laughed slightly. "I was to provide magical backup to a team of gun toting demolition men. All I did was sit in the van and read a Newsweek while they tore this poor guy's place to rubble."

            "So that was the beginning of an illustrious career. I called into work dead, bought a Kevlar vest and a couple new spells, and hired myself out. I worked a job nearly every two weeks. Some were easy two-hour jobs, like my first one. Some required some major legwork, planning, surgical strike sort of things. I tried not to kill anybody. Some can't be helped, but I kept a very low body count."

            "So, what I'm trying to say is, well, you got two choices." Tom sat on the edge of the desk and turned to Felix. He held his hands out before him like a scale. "The corporation route, or the shadowrunner route. Every magician that knows more than two spells comes to this choice. I knew you would, too."

            "Mom know about this?" Felix asked, nearly whispering.

            "Amelia? Oh sure. She was my right hand man, er, woman. She was my getaway driver. She was my medic. She was a damn fine contact, too." Tom sighed, leaning back on the desk with one hand. "Yeah, it was some fun."

            "I don't know, dad. Shadowrunning, by the entire definition of the word, is illegal. Seriously though…" Felix started.

            "Felix, Felix, I know. I've had this conversation with myself and others many, many times. Here's my answer. Yes, it's illegal. Yes, you might get killed, or worse. But it's fun. It pays extremely well, and it allows magic to be used the way it was meant to be used, not as an entertainment center for some rich man's son to turn on and off whenever he feels like it. But like I said before," Tom held his hands out before him again, "the corporate route, or the shadowrunning route. Or you can get jazzed up on lotza cool cyberware and blow any chance you had. They're both valid choices. Up to you, son." Tom sat there, gazing in Felix's general direction.

            "You're… okay with the fact that I did a run?" Felix asked.

            "It's irrelevant. I certainly can't condemn you."

            "I… do I have to make my choice now?" Tom blinked.

            "What? Oh, no! You make it whenever you want. Sorry, I didn't know I made you feel you were in the hot seat there…" Tom said, laughing. He stood up to exit, patting Felix on the shoulder as he left. Emily squeezed past Tom as she entered the room. She came around the chair and sat down on the desk.

            "So what happened? He cut your nads off?" Emily asked. Felix sat silent for a few seconds. Suddenly, he snapped his head into Emily's direction, his mouth open slightly.

            "Emily? Ever been in your room, smoking a big, fat reefer? You know, the kind that take two papers to make, that you just learned how to make from that Pot Smokers of America book? And, while smoking this gigantic, blimp of a joint, your parents walk in, and instead of getting the beating of your life that you expected and knew you deserved, you learn that you could have been buying it from them for half as much as you'd been paying the greasy Mexican down the street?" Felix asked in a dazed sort of voice. Emily stared at Felix, wanting to laugh but didn't out of concern.

            "You see, that's how I feel right now." Felix stood up and looked out the window. "So here's my dilemma. Do I continue smoking, knowing that it's illegal but it's fun and it brings me closer to my family? Or do I quit, setting an example but pissing my parents off because I quit only because they found out?"

            "Felix, you're confusing as hell." Emily said.

            "Why do you do it?" Felix asked, still staring out the window. After a couple seconds of silence, he turned around. He was talking to an empty room.

            "Dammit." Felix whispered to himself. He walked out to the kitchen and threw the screen door open, letting it slam into the side of the house then back into the doorway. He clinched his fists as he took long steps into the center of the yard. He slowed down, thrust his hands into his pockets, and sighed, looking out past the trees against the edge of the yard.

            "You had fun, didn't you?" his father's voice asked. Felix looked over his shoulder to see his dad stepping out from the shadows cast by the house.

            "See, that's the worst part." Felix said. "Ever tell a priest that sex was utterly magnificent?" Tom chuckled.

            "No, can't say that I have, son."            

            "Well, that pretty much sums it up. Twenty-two years of being an exemplary citizen and I come to find out that suddenly, it's okay to blow shit up."

            "Hey, watch your mouth." Tom scolded.

            "Sorry." Felix replied. "But you know what I mean."

            "Well, just remember what I said." Tom said.

"So that's how you messed up your back? During a job?"

"Yep. I was out in Santa Fe, I think five, maybe six years ago, stealing some data from one of the corps out there." Tom started. He slowly approached a pair of rusty lawn chairs and sat down. Felix sat next to him. "Our planned escape route was this small, army surplus portable aluminum bridge over to an adjoining building. The run got botched when someone working late spotted us. Our team made it to the roof. I watched everyone's back as they crossed the bridge, so I was the last one across. Halfway, I slipped and fell over the side. I managed go grab the rope used to pull the entire contraption closed again, so I'm hanging between these two buildings, about thirty stories up. All of a sudden, someone breaks one of the top windows of the building we came from. Some security guard with a pistol. He must have been some Deadeye Dick, because instead of blasting me full of holes, he takes some careful aim and splits that rope with one bullet. On the way down, I threw up all the shield and barrier and save-my-nuts spells I knew. Think they saved my life."

"You said five, six years ago." Felix said. "Right?"

"Yep."

"So I was sixteen."

"That's right."

"You were in Japan on business for eight months when I was sixteen." Felix said, smiling slyly, figuring he blew a hole in his father's story. "How's that work?"

"Easy. I lied to you. Spent that time in rehab for a telescoped spine and forty-eight broken bones."

"Mom and I visited you March of that year! How did you do that?"

"It wasn't easy wearing all those braces and supports under my suit that day." Tom said. "Itched like crazy." Felix laughed.

"That's right. You said you had an infection of some kind. Jesus, Dad, I can't believe it. You lied to me all those years?"

"So?"

"Well, I don't know." Felix said, searching for some way to be mad at his father. "That's just not right."

"Remember the middle cushion of the couch? You said you dropped a cigarette on it and it burned right through."

"Yep. You grounded me for a month for smoking."

"You should have just told us you brought some girl over and decided to use the couch instead of your bed." Tom said. Felix turned red.

"How'd you…"

"Oh, we figured you did that to destroy the genetic evidence that you did something there. Plus her panties were wedged down inside the couch. Good thing you told us you were smoking. I would have nailed your butt to the door if I would have known that bit of trivia."

"So why don't I have a nail scar in my behind?"

"We found out after your eighteenth birthday. All sins are purged, I figure, after your eighteenth birthday. My point is you lied to us, too. Don't get your knickers twisted because we did, too."

"Damn, and she said she had 'em when she left." Felix said. He looked at his father. "What color were they?"

"Eh?"

"Well, it was dark. Never got a chance to see."

"Oh, uh, pink."

"Ah. Thanks."

"You're welcome, I guess." Tom said. He stood up with effort. "I'm going to bed. Please don't destroy this couch, too."

"Dad…" Felix growled in embarrassment. He stood up and looked out past the trees again, listening to the screen door open and slam back shut as his father went inside. After a couple minutes, his eyes adjusted to the dark, and at the base of one tree, he saw a small figure. Thinking it was an animal of some sort, Felix approached to investigate. However, as he got closer, he recognized the figure to be Emily, sitting against the tree, her arms wrapped around her knees and her head hidden within.

            "Emily? That you?" Felix asked. Suddenly, Emily looked up. "Are you okay?" Emily stood up quickly, wiping her face with one stroke of her sleeve. She mumbled a quick "yes" as she stepped past Felix.

            "You sure?" Felix asked, starting to follow Emily back across the yard. Emily stopped.

            "Nothing. It's okay." Emily replied without turning around.

            "You sure?" Felix asked. "I own a polygraph." Emily sighed and turned around.

            "You really don't want to hear it." She said.

            "I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to." Emily crossed her arms and stepped forward a pace. Her face became hidden from Felix by a shadow. "Whatever it is, I'd like to hear it." Emily swallowed, sniffed hard and exhaled.

"My entire life has been miserable. My father was so chock full of cyberware and machinery that I doubt he still had a soul. If he did, he would have sold it for a discount on the next upgrade. Mom was abused all the time. He'd yell at her, he'd beat her, and I was always in the house when it happened. It drove her to drink. I actually thank God to this day it was the booze that killed her. When she died, when I was fourteen, Dad turned to me. He never relented. Everyday it was something that crushed my soul a little more. I tried complaining to teachers, to Lone Star, to friends, anyone who would listen, but Dad carried so much clout, so much respect with our community, no one ever suspected him and blamed me for such an overactive imagination. Adding insult to injury, I was committed to a psychiatric ward and medicated for a year." Emily explained with a deathly calm. Felix was rapidly regretting he even asked.

            "The one thing that released me from that Hell was actually Dad's own doing. During my stay in the ward, they found I was pregnant…"

            "Jesus!" Felix exclaimed, crossing his arms. Suddenly uncomfortable, he started shifting his weight from one foot to another.

            "Yeah, that's what most everyone said, too. DNA tests confirmed it was my sister as well as my daughter. They figured that anyway when Dad took off for Tokyo on a business trip and didn't come back." Emily exhaled sharply, then continued.

            "Well, like they expected I would, I miscarried. Everyone around started apologizing like I was going to file suit. Not that I could comprehend much of it. I was so doped up and mentally broken, all I did was stare out a window. So, in an attempt to make up for thinking I was crazy, as well for the PR they could get from it, they hired a team of clinical sorcerers to, well, quite literally, dismantle my mind and rebuild it from scratch. Kinda like a cold format. Took a year and a half, but at least I wasn't a gibbering idiot."

            "So, after all the work was done, I skipped out on my own. With the help of a couple new friends I made, I managed to bleed some money off a few of Dad's business accounts. My friends shared in the wealth and," Emily tapped the sockets above her left temple. "After getting this jack installed, taught me how to run with the big dogs." Emily's voice started to sound more positive, making Felix feel slightly better.

            "But, there are times when I see something like you and your dad, and…" Emily's voice deteriorated rapidly into crying. Felix stepped forward quickly to comfort her. As soon as he was close enough, Emily buried her head into his shoulder, her hands around his waist. Felix held her tightly as he felt his shirt become damp with tears.

            After several minutes of patting her back, stroking her head and whispering soothing words to her, the crying subsided. Emily took several deep breaths, rubbed her eyes and stepped back a pace.

            "Okay." Emily said. "Okay, I'm better now. Thank you."

            "No problem." Felix said, trying hard not to cry himself. He put his hand on her shoulder. "C'mon. It's late." They walked back into the house, careful not to let the screen door slam shut.

            "Your dad said I could sleep in the room across from the bathroom." Emily said as she crossed the kitchen for the hallway. She went to the door across from the bathroom and opened it. She stepped inside and touched the wall panel. Lights faded on.

            The room looked much like a den. Shelves covered every wall, on which were an assortment of books and knick-knacks. In one corner, a small grandfather clock sat silently. In the opposite corner was a dark red leather recliner with a tiny table at it's side.

            "Oh, cool. Didn't know this place had a den." Emily said.

            "Not a den." Felix replied. He came in, went to the wall across the room and reached for a book in the middle of the top shelf. He tilted it forward and released it. The entire bookcase slowly tilted forward as the books and items on the shelves stayed put. As it lowered to the floor, the bed built into the other side was revealed. Emily smiled broadly.

            "It's my room." Felix replied.

            "How freaking cool!" Emily said. She sat down on the bed, bouncing a couple times to test the softness. 

            "Yeah, my dad gets bouts of creativity sometimes." Felix explained. He sat down in the red leather chair. "He came home one Friday and said 'Felix! Know that hide-a-bed ya got? Let's make it a bookshelf!' I think he was watching one of those old, old movies with the secret laboratory behind the bookshelf when he got the idea. Either way, it freed up floor space." She looked up to the space where the bed was. Hanging up was a poster of a man with a five o'clock shadow, dressed as a nun, giving the finger. In his other hand was a bottle of malt liquor. The poster was for a band called "Fresh Vomit".

            "Charming." Emily said, smiling again.

            "Hey, I had to act like a kid one way or another, right? It was a cute CD." Felix said, shrugging his shoulders. "Need your bag?"

            "Yeah, please." Emily said, laying back. Felix went out to the car, retrieved both bags and came back inside. He dropped his bag on the couch and went to give Emily hers. However, when he got to the door, he saw Emily standing in the middle of the room in a small pile of clothes, her back turned to the door, naked. He stared in surprise and almost utter awe for a second, but when Emily turned, Felix did also.

            "What's the matter?" Emily asked, picking her bag up off the floor of the hallway.

            "I wish you wouldn't do that." Felix said, still facing the opposite direction.

            "Oh!" Emily exclaimed, suddenly gaining a little modesty and shrinking back to the bed. She tossed the blanket over herself while she dug through her bag. "Sorry about that. Living alone for as long as I have tends to induce some habits, like strolling around naked."

            "If you want me to stare at you, that's not a problem. I'll oblige." Felix said.

            "Oh, come now. Don't be so offended. I'm decent now." Emily said. Felix turned around to see her dressed in a long nightshirt. "You don't like to watch naked women?"

            "I don't want to get slapped."

            "You're always the gentleman, Felix. Good night." Emily said. Felix went into the living room, kicked off his shoes and fell asleep on the couch.


	4. Chapter IV

Chapter Four

Early the following morning, at precisely eight o'clock, vigorous and extremely loud pounding on the front door shook the entire house. Felix was startled so badly he fell off of the couch and landed hard on his rear. As soon as he realized what was going on, he jumped up and opened the door.

"What!" Felix snapped. 

"Who the hell are you?" A slightly overweight and sweaty man asked around the cigarette between his lips.

"What?" Felix asked. He squinted at the man in disbelief of his statement. "Why are you banging on the door so hard?"

"Hey, screw you. Where's Tom?" The man asked. Felix eyes widened.

"Don't you dare, Felix." Tom scolded as he came around the house. Both Felix and the man on the porch looked at him.

"Hey, Tom. What's up?" The man greeted as he stepped away from the door. Tom shook his hand.

"Just fixin' my son's car, Harry." Tom said. Felix looked out to the driveway. He saw a truck with "A-1 Auto Glass" spelled out in small and uneven blue letters on the driver's side door. "Oh, by the way, the person you just said 'screw you' to was my son, Felix."

"Hiya, Felix." Harry said over his shoulder. "Need a hand with this windshield?"

"Nope. My son and I can take care of it. Thanks though." Tom said. "How much do I owe you?"

"No way." Harry said, shaking his head. "Hell, I still owe you big time. Consider this interest." He walked over to the truck, tossed his cigarette into the street and hefted a windshield out of the back. He brought it down the driveway and out of Felix's sight. Felix went back inside, slipped his shoes on, then went around to the garage at the end of the driveway. He saw that his father had already taken off the destroyed windshield.

"Oh wow." Felix yawned, rubbing his eyes. "Thanks, Dad."

"No problem, son." Tom said. He smeared glue on the edge of the glass, then Felix and Tom lifted the windshield onto the car, and started rolling the steel back over the edges. About halfway through, Felix stopped.

"Hey, wait a second." Felix said. "How'd you know about this?"

"Emily told us last night, while you were passed out. She talked a lot about you. How you guys met, so on and so forth. Ordered the windshield then." Tom replied.

"You mean you gave me the third degree when you already knew what happened?" Felix exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips.

"You know I wanted to hear it straight from you." Tom said, standing up and dropping his tools to wipe his brow. Felix smiled and magically thumped his father in the shoulder. Tom responded by blowing a short gust of air at Felix. They laughed for a second, then continued crimping the steel back over the windshield. They stopped when they heard gravel crunching under someone's feet. They looked up to see Emily coming up, dressed in denim shorts and a white blouse.

"You guys really know how to do summer out here." Emily said, her hand on her forehead, providing shade for her squinted eyes. Felix shot a gust of wind in her direction.

"Hey!" Emily giggled. "Do that ten degrees cooler and you're hired."  She walked up behind Felix and observed their progress.

"Okay, I have to know." Emily said with a tone of desperation. "How'd you know that car wasn't broken down?"

"Steam was coming out of the left side of the car. If it were really broken down, it would have been shooting straight up." Felix replied, keeping his eye on the work before him. "When you pull over to check to see if your engine is too hot, you take off the radiator cap. He must have pulled a hose out to get it to do that."

"Well, I'm stupid." Emily said. "Okay, you're repaid for your mistake at the car dealer."

"Thanks, I guess." Felix grunted as he folded the last lip of metal back over the windshield. The only obvious sign of repair was a thin line of flaked paint along the perimeter of the glass.

"Okay. Now, can you go down to the store and get a roast and a bottle of wine?" Tom asked, reaching into his pocket. "No soy, no synthahol either. I want the real McCoy, please."

"Sure. But leave your cash in your pocket. Emily and I will be back in a few." Felix said. Felix and Emily got into the car and drove down the thin, cracked street, leaving a low dust cloud behind them. The street was uninterrupted by perpendicular streets for five miles. Only a single row of tract houses, generously spaced out by brown lawns, occupied either side of the road. They drove straight for a few minutes before they hit the small cluster of strip malls next to the Interstate. Felix pulled a pair of U-turns around the small island in the middle of the divided street and pulled into the parking lot of the local supermarket.

            "Your dad allergic to the synthetic garbage the stores turn out, too?" Emily asked as they scanned the crowded parking lot for an empty space.

            "Just a discriminating pallet." Felix said. They parked behind the store and went inside. Felix proceeded straight for the back, picked up a large pot roast from the meat department, then headed for the liquor isle. They stood there, looking at the hundreds of different brands and varieties of wines and liquors.

            "So what does your father drink?" Emily asked, examining an oddly shaped bottle of bourbon. Felix ran his finger down the prices illuminated on the small LCD displays under every bottle.

            "Here." Felix said, taking a bottle off the shelf. Emily replaced the whiskey and looked at the one Felix took.

            "This?" Emily asked. "Why this brand?" She took it from him and examined the bottle.

            "Because it's the most expensive." Felix replied. He pointed at the price on the shelf. Emily gasped.

            "Five hundred sixty eight nuyen for a flippin' bottle of wine?" Emily asked. The display blinked a couple times and scrolled 'sold out'. "Why?"

            "Got me. I don't drink it." Felix said, heading toward the check out isle. Every register had a line of at least eight people in it. Felix and Emily stood patiently in the first line, farthest from the door. Felix looked over to the other lines. Suddenly, one figure caught his attention; a very tall orc, taller than everyone else in the store, who carried a six-pack of beer in his hand and wore bandages on his head. Through the white undershirt the orc was wearing, Felix could see his midsection was also wrapped. The orc turned to look at Felix, his gaze frozen as well.

            "Felix, get a load of this magazine." Emily said, tapping him on the shoulder. When Emily didn't get a response, she tapped him again. Felix reached over, grabbed Emily's shoulder and jerked her around one hundred eighty degrees.

            "Hey! What the…" Emily said, but silenced when she saw the orc. Without removing his gaze from Felix, the orc straddled the six-pack on top of a magazine rack and started to slowly back up.

            "What's going on?" Felix asked.

            "I don't know." Emily said. The orc turned and started walking fast out the door. "Maybe he's scared. Let's just pay for this stuff and get the hell outta here." They stood for a few seconds in silence. Suddenly, Felix looked back over to the doorway. He saw the orc walk back into the market with a rather large rifle on his shoulder. He pointed it to the ceiling and fired off a full clip. Before the clip was spent, the entire supermarket turned to chaos as over a hundred screaming people bolted out, trying to avoid coming within fifty feet of the orc. The orc stood there, calmly loading another clip into his weapon.

            "Somehow I knew that would happen." Emily said, starting to back up. Felix stood there, staring at the orc. Emily grabbed Felix's arm and tugged at him. "C'mon! We gotta hide!" Felix shook his arm loose from Emily's grasp. She stumbled backwards a couple paces.

"Dammit, Felix! What are you doing?" Emily yelled. Felix began breathing heavier. The orc saw Felix standing in front of him and brought the gun down to site. He dropped the bottle, shattering it and splashing his shoes and ankles with deep burgundy wine. Suddenly, he screamed and his body jerked back as if a shock wave hit him. The orc flew backwards and landed hard on his back as the manabolt slammed into him. Emily stood there, dumbfounded.

            "Damn. Why couldn't you do that yesterday?" Emily asked. Felix blinked and shook his head. He looked again at the orc lying on his back.

            "Damn. Why couldn't I do that yesterday?" Felix asked. The orc sat up, his hand on his back. As soon as he saw the two still standing there, he grabbed the rifle, put the stock into his stomach and started firing. Felix and Emily ducked into the aisle across from the registers.

            "Okay, now what, Miss Runner?" Felix asked, peeking around the edge of the aisle. The orc got up and started to walk along the main aisle, looking down each aisle as he passed.

            "What, you think I do this on a regular basis?" Emily asked in surprise. The orc caught a glimpse of Felix peeking around the corner. Felix ducked back before the orc fired. Several bags of potato chips exploded, sending snack food debris everywhere. Emily and Felix ran down the aisle, barely dodging bullets that the orc fired after them when he caught up. Two glass doors to freezers across from the end of the aisle exploded as they darted down the next aisle.

            "Get down!" A voice yelled. "I'm a cop!" Felix and Emily turned to see a man with a nine millimeter drawn approaching the aisle the orc was walking down.

            "No!" Felix yelled. "He's got an assault rifle!" The man paid no attention. He whipped around and fired twice. The orc fired back, riddling the man's body full of slugs. The mangled corpse dropped and slid a few feet backwards, leaving a slick, bloody trail behind.

            "God. What are we gonna do?" Felix asked. They ran down the main aisle in the rear of the store, ducking into another aisle when the orc appeared.

            "What spells do you know?" Emily asked, running along side Felix.

            "Be more specific." Felix asked.

            "What will take down this orc?"

            "Besides the manabolt, the stun spells and the fireball, nothing." Felix said. They zigzagged between aisles, temporarily losing the orc. Emily stopped dead.

            "Fireball? As in a ball of fire?" Emily asked.

            "Yeah. Hence the name."

            "Split up. Meet me by the liquor isle. I'll get the orc down there. You know the rest." Emily said, running off for the rear of the store. She peeked down the rear aisle, and when she saw the coast was clear, she darted over to the unfortunate man and found his gun. When she bent over to pick it up, the orc came out of one of the aisles. Emily snatched the gun off the floor and jumped into a small open freezer in the middle of the aisle. The orc sprayed fire into the side of the freezer. Emily balled up tighter and tighter on top of bags of frozen shrimp as the dents from the slugs punched closer and closer. The shooting stopped. She cocked her head to look above the rim of the freezer. She saw the orc eject the spent banana clip, reach into his pocket and pull another one out. Emily turned to get on her hands and knees to get out. However, as she got up, she slipped on the ice in the freezer, jamming her foot into a coolant grate. She looked up over the rim again to see the orc slam the clip in. Emily ducked her head down, knowing full well the freezer wouldn't take much more abuse.

            "Hey, ass fuck!" shouted Felix's voice. Emily looked above the rim again to see the orc turn his head. Felix was standing behind him, plain as day. The orc swiveled around, but before he could draw on him, Felix let loose another manabolt, sending the orc on his back once again. Emily pulled her foot loose, leaving her shoe behind. As the orc was attempting to re-orient himself, Emily ran for the liquor aisle, nine millimeter in hand.

            "Okay, Fletch." Emily said as she jogged down the liquor aisle. "We got one shot at this. When I say so, you cast the biggest motherfucking fireball you can down the aisle. Got it?"

            "Yep." Felix replied, and jogged down to the end of the aisle with Emily. She peeked around the corner. Just as she suspected, the orc came down the aisle, staggering slightly from the doses of magic Felix dealt him.

            "A little bit further, just a little more." Emily whispered to herself. When the orc got half way down the aisle, next to the shelves of moonshine and one fifty one proof rum, she fired the gun into the bottles of booze, shattering dozens of them and splashing the orc. The orc growled and cursed, holding the gun with one hand and rubbing his eyes with the other.

            "Now!" Emily exclaimed. As the orc wiped at his stinging eyes, Felix let loose with a fireball down the aisle. It roared as it traveled, shaking the shelves. When it hit the orc, the fireball set off gallons of flammable rum and moonshine, adding to the sheer intensity of the impact. A miniature black and red mushroom cloud floated up and licked the ceiling with smoke, soot and fire, immediately triggering the sprinkler system. The orc screamed as the flames engulfed him and most of the shelves. He flailed about for a few seconds, then collapsed in the puddle of burning alcohol.

            "You alright?" Felix yelled over the downpour.

            "Yeah! Let's get the hell out of here please." Emily shouted back, tossing the gun she picked up down the aisle. They turned for the exit, but stopped when the local SWAT team, outfitted in riot gear, slowly entered the store.

            "Dammit!" Emily cursed. Without warning, she stooped over and picked Felix up on her shoulder.

            "Hey!" Felix protested.

            "Move and I kill you. Shut up." Emily growled. Felix followed orders and went limp as Emily walked for the exit, weaving slightly left and right since one of her sneakers were still lodged in the shrimp freezer. As she started out the exit, a policeman stopped her.

            "Hold on, ma'am. Does he need medical attention?" The officer asked through a grate in his riot helmet.

            "No. He's fine. Passed out from all the excitement." Emily said in her sweet innocent tone.

            "It would probably be best if you let our paramedic unit look him over, ma'am."

            "I said he's fine. Just let me get him home please." Emily asked in a sad, almost pathetic tone. The officer stood silent for a moment.

            "Yeah, alright. Hurry up." The officer said, waving them away. Emily walked off and when she was sure the officer wasn't watching, she put Felix down.

            "Damn. Gain some weight, would you?" Emily said, walking for the car. She giggled a little. "I forgot how good I was."

            "Forget it again. I helped on that one." Felix said. "We just better get home before anyone finds out who was responsible for the fire." They trotted for the car around the side of the store. When Felix jumped in and started the motor, the rear service entrance door burst open. Emily and Felix turned to see a smoking orc, with bloody burns all over his body, leaning against the doorway, holding a nine-millimeter pistol. They sat there, dumbstruck. The orc fired once. The passenger side window shattered completely. Emily was struck in the right shoulder by the bullet.

            "Dammit!" Emily screamed. "Drive!" Felix snapped out of his confusion and hit the gas. The small car fishtailed for a moment, then the tires took hold of the asphalt and shot out of the parking lot. Emily growled as she grabbed her shoulder as hard as she could. Tiny, red waterfalls flowed over her clutched fingers. "This was supposed to be a vacation!"

            "As soon as we get home, you'll be okay. Hold on." Felix said, screaming around a turn. After a minute of driving as fast as the car could down the lonely residential street, he made it home. He entered the driveway with such velocity he sent gravel flying against the house, making it sound like a hail of bullets inside. He sent more gravel into the garage when he slammed on the brakes. Tom rushed outside to investigate.

            "What in the hell, boy?" Tom shouted, coming down the sidewalk. "You learn to drive yesterday?" Felix jumped out of the car and ran to Emily's door.

            "We met up with that orc again at the store. Emily's been shot." Felix helped Emily out. She still held her bloody shoulder.

            "Christ. Amelia!" Tom shouted inside. "Get your patch kit!" Amelia poked her head out the front door.

            "Christ is right. What she been hit by?" Amelia asked.

            "Nine-millimeter. Didn't hit the bone. Nothing shattered." Emily replied through clinched teeth. "I think!" She staggered inside, followed by Tom and Felix. Amelia guided Emily to sit on the coffee table, where she had a first aid kit open. Amelia tore the sleeve of the blouse away, revealing the wound. She poured a bottle of alcohol across the shoulder, washing the blood away and making Emily open her eyes as wide as a cartoon character would.

            "Okay. This is going to hurt. Bad." Amelia said. She plunged her index finger and thumb into the wound, causing more blood to gush forth. Emily screamed, but as fast as she went in, Amelia came out with the slug.

            "Close that up before she ruins my carpet." Amelia said, tossing the slug clear across the room and into the kitchen sink.

            "Here goes." Felix said, and put his hand over the wound. He held his breath and concentrated for a few moments. When he pulled his hand away, the hole closed significantly, but not completely. Felix held his head.

            "Close enough for government work." Amelia said as she taped a thick pad of gauze over the bullet hole. She sat back and inspected her work. "Haven't done that since I fished a niner out of your Papa's butt. Back in fifty-three. You okay, dear?" Emily nodded her head.

            "Hush." Tom said. As Amelia wrapped a bandage around Emily's arm, Tom looked out the window. "Oh, no." He turned to look at everyone in the room, then back out the window. "You've been followed."

            "Crap!" Emily exclaimed. She jumped up to look out the window, sending the roll of elastic micropore bandage unraveling across the room. Far down the street, a car was coming closer, being followed by a cloud of dust only produced by a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed.

            "Everyone, back into the office! Now!" Tom exclaimed. Emily and Amelia jumped to the order and ran back. Tom followed the two women, and Felix followed Tom, holding his head.

            "You okay?" Tom asked as Felix entered the office.

            "No." Felix said. "Worst headache…"

            "Shake it off." Tom said. "Something tells me we'll need you soon."

            Suddenly, the entire house shuttered.

            "Son of a bitch!" Tom exclaimed. He grabbed the cushion of the chair in the middle of the office and tossed it across the room. He picked up the small SMG he had hidden there. "He rammed the house! That son of a bitch crashed into my house!" Tom pulled the safety off and flipped the switch to full auto. Felix, suddenly inspired and enraged by his father's words, went to the door and tossed it open to take down the orc and protect his family. He was met with four slugs in the chest.


	5. Chapter V

Chapter Five

            "Felix?" a voice called. Felix couldn't recognize the voice, or anything else around him. Confusion, then fear became his only thoughts. Everything around him was whirling and out of focus.

            "No, Felix. It's okay!" The voice called again. "Don't be afraid. I need you to be calm now." Felix slowly calmed himself. Confusion was still his main focus. 

            "Felix, you're projecting at the moment. Your astral form was shaken loose from your body when you were shot. Do you understand now?" Felix finally placed the voice as his father's. The confusion gave way. However, it was replaced with frustration when he could not make out anything around him. A swirling black void with a static, white sphere before him. Unfortunately, the astral realm was woefully unfamiliar to him.

            "Felix! Relax!" His father ordered. "You must listen to me now! Do not do anything else!" Felix gave up on trying to make sense of his astral surroundings. He tried to shut his eyes, but became aware of the absence of his body.

            "Now, listen and remember very carefully. I have been shot. Fatally. I won't make it. Your mother, too. You are very seriously wounded, but you will survive. Emily escaped." Felix's confusion came back again, mixed with sadness and anger. His father's form distorted and faded into the blackness.

            "Felix! No! Calm yourself!" Tom ordered again. Felix forced himself to release his emotions, allowing him to listen to his father, though he could no longer see his form.

            "The one who shot us was an orc. He's also a magician. Physically adept. He has stolen something from me. Something I was going to give to you this afternoon. You have to go get it back." His father's voice degraded and began to fall silent. "You've always made me proud, son. You'll be alright. Goodbye." Tom's voice faded into nothingness. Felix's emotions swelled again, making the unrecognizable void around him swirl with sickening shades of red, purple and yellow. Felix lost control in the vertigo.

* * * * * * *

Felix opened his eyes. He saw above him a ceiling crisscrossed with narrow decorated beams. He made a mental check over his body. His head burned. His chest was numb but ached. With a little difficulty, he sat up. He was asleep on a brown leather couch in a small modest office. He looked over at the desk to see someone reading. The man behind the desk looked up, adjusted his glasses and smiled.

            "Guten tag, Herr Page." The man greeted in a pleasant German accent. He put the piece of paper he was reading in the desk and stood up. He was a rather short person, but not build solidly enough to be a dwarf. His stomach passed his belt slightly, straining the buttons of his blazer. The man walked around the edge of the desk and leaned against the front.

            "Not so far, it hasn't." Felix replied. He laid back down and put his hand on his chest. The slight impact his hand made on his chest outlined his wounds under his bandages with a twinge of pain, then the creeping numbness filled back in. Felix counted four twinges of pain.

            "It's been two days." The man replied.

            "Figures." Felix said, staring at the ceiling. "What happened?"

            "The details are sketchy. All that we know is that someone hit the panic button over at Tomorrow's house. Since he is one of our former employees that is on our retirement payroll, we replied long before the local law enforcement could." The man took a breath at this point, then waited until Felix looked at him.

            "Your father had been shot. Your mother as well. Both died a short time later."

            "Yeah." Felix replied, sighing and looking back at the ceiling. "I know."

            "Your father was a priceless asset to the company. He was a valuable friend to me." The man said louder, with a sincere emphasis. Felix looked back at the man sitting across the room from him. "Tomorrow saved my life a number of occasions when we performed jobs. When I made enough and decided to start a business, he agreed to help by becoming a full time employee, thus saving me again from having to deal with hired muscle and inexperienced brats who pass themselves off as mages." The man cursed quietly in German, looking at the floor. "Amelia as well. Never has a greater tragedy befallen us here."

            "So why am I in your office bleeding on your couch?" Felix asked.

            "I owe my friend's son my service as I would my friend." The man replied.

            "Why not some hospital?"

            "Herr Page, you would be chained to the bed. You are SINless, remember?" Felix closed his eyes, suddenly remembering his anonymity again. "However, we can hire you on. I owe you that much."

            "I'm sorry, sir. You're very generous, but I cannot do nearly half the things my father was able to. Plus, I have a few things I must attend to."

            "I do not believe you. Your father spoke many times of your skill as a magician as well as a summoner. But I assume you have much business to attend to." The German paused, thought for a second, then reached over the deck into one of the desk drawers. Felix sat up and looked at what he was doing. The German sat up with a small object in his hand. "Here." He tossed it at Felix. He almost caught it, but dropped it onto the plush carpet. He picked it up and examined it.

            "Oh, I already have a secretary, but thank you."

            "Not this one." The German said. "This one is the Omega edition."

            "Eh?" Felix asked, opening it. It looked just as any other pocket secretary would except for the large silver Omega character on the cover.

            "Sure. The company releases those in October. Plus, that one has your father's accounts on it. Go to the personal finance menu, password's…" The German chuckled. "Well, it's you." Felix laughed slightly. He typed in his name. The computer beeped pleasantly and listed a series of thirty digit alphanumeric codes followed by dollar amounts. At the bottom of the list, the total revealed his father had around fifty thousand nuyen squirreled away.

            "There are other things on there, too. Phone numbers, a spell formula I think. Other stuff like that. Play around with it. My number is under the German." Felix laughed.

            "I wonder why." Felix replied.

            "Got the hell out of Hamburg when the race riots started. Bad for business." The German sighed. "Sure you won't consider employment?" Felix got up, grimacing. He placed the secretary in the pocket of his slacks. Then he paused, never remembering putting on slacks. 

            "No." Felix grunted. "At least, not at the moment."

            "Very well. I'll give you a call in a few days, see if you change your mind." Felix walked over to the German sitting on the deck and shook his hand. He started to turn, but paused.

            "Say, do you happen to know if anything was stolen from the house? You know, when the, uh, orc…"

            "Oh, yes, there was something our clean up men couldn't find. The foci he had locked up."

            "Foci?"

            "Yes. Only two though. The company bought them for him after a particularly profitable job he did for us years past. Um, it was a…" The German searched for words, looking at the ceiling. "One was a power focus, I believe the other one was a spell lock, if I'm not mistaken."

            "These were stolen?" Felix said. "That's what Dad was talking about. Of course. And my parents? Are they..."

            "Cremated. According to their wishes, and to prevent desecration by certain organizations." The German explained. Felix nodded. He turned for the door. 

            "Oh! Felix!" The German called. Felix looked over his shoulder.

            "Yeah?"

            "A young lady is waiting down the hall for you. Didn't catch a name. Had a…" The German, at a loss for words, made a swirl with his finger around his left eye.

            "Oh!" Felix exclaimed. "Thanks!" He bolted out the door. The German chuckled.

            "Hmmm. Good kid. Hope he doesn't get killed going after his father's stuff."

            Felix trotted down a green carpeted hallway immediately outside the German's office. Suddenly, the hallway terminated into a gigantic lobby. Felix stood in the center for a second. He looked to the right of the room, seeing a dozen empty chairs and as many small sofas and tables. Suddenly, something grabbed him and his chest blazed with pain. Felix yelped and tore away swinging his arms. He stepped forward a couple paces and swiveled around, fists before him.

            "Well, that's a fine way of saying hello." Emily said, hands at her sides.

            "Oh!" Felix exclaimed, his hand over his heart. "You scared the ever-living drek out of me. God, it's good to see you. I thought you were dead." He approached Emily and gave her a hug. At first, she stood there, her arms akimbo, but sighed and hugged back. Felix winced but didn't let Emily know how much his chest hurt. Emily let go and looked at the bandages wrapped clear around his chest under an open white dress shirt.

            "Damn. That dude did a number on you, didn't he?"

            "Yeah. Feels like he unloaded the entire clip out on me." Felix said, tenderly touching his chest.

            "I'm sorry about your parents, Felix." Emily said. Felix sighed.

            "Thank you." Felix said. He looked at the floor, his arms at his hips. "Dammit."

            "Anything I can do?"

            "No. Thanks, but not really. Let's just go home."

            "'kay." Emily replied. They silently exited the office and got into a car Felix didn't recognize. The smell suggested a rental car. The surrounding city was unfamiliar to Felix. Quickly, he fell asleep again.

            "Yo, we're here." Emily said, tapping Felix's shoulder. Felix opened his eyes to the familiar dirty façade of his apartment building brightly illuminated by the setting sun. He stretched and climbed out. Felix went inside, followed by Emily. They trudged up the stairs but stopped dead in the hallway. The door to Felix's apartment was open into the hallway.

            "My door doesn't open into the hallway." Felix commented.

            "Yeah. It doesn't have dozens of holes in it either." Emily commented. Felix's door also looked like Emily's. They approached his apartment. As they came around the door, the sound of a shotgun racking was heard. Felix just stood in front of the doorway as Emily jumped further down the hall.

            "Felix?" Bones asked.

            "Bones?" Felix asked. Felix saw Bones sitting in the middle of his living room with a shotgun. Bones, the shotgun, the folding chair he was sitting in and the forty-ounce beer bottle on the ground next to him were the only things in the apartment that did not have a large caliber hole in it.

            "Stay out of my apartment, Bones." Felix said and entered. He went into the kitchen and pulled on the perforated refrigerator door. It fell off. After examining the contents of the refrigerator, he withdrew a forty-ouncer from the six-pack that Bones was already starting on.

            "Felix? You okay?" Emily's voice called from the hallway.

            "Yeah, sure. Come in and get something to drink." Felix replied. He twisted the cap off of the bottle and tossed into the shattered remains of the sink. Emily poked her head around the door. She saw Felix standing in the kitchen drinking a beer and Bones staring at him, mouth slightly open. When she saw the coast was clear, she entered. She held a very tiny pistol in her right hand.

            "Dammit, Felix. I know you're the easy-going type, but for frick's sake! Look surprised or something! Shit!" Bones exclaimed, reaching for his beer on the ground.

            "Holy shit. Look at my place. It is blown to shit." Felix said, in a deliberate monotone. 

            "Wow, looks like my place." Emily said. She tucked the pistol back into her pocket. Bones turned to her.

            "What? This happened twice?" Bones asked.

            "Oh sure. Some Yak got mad because I wouldn't give it up." Emily replied. "Oh, I never said thanks for hauling us to my friends house a week ago. I'm Circumstance." Emily extended her hand. Bones put the beer on the ground, switched the shotgun to his left hand and shook Emily's hand.

            "Charmed. Bones."

            "Thanks for babysitting Felix's apartment." Emily turned to Felix. "But Bones is right. Having someone as emotionally stable as you is damn freaky." Felix shrugged his shoulders.

            "Sorry." Felix said. "If Bones would have put maglocks in and replaced these crummy deadbolts this wouldn't have happened." Emily looked at Bones.

            "Yeah, well…" Bones stuttered. "Oh, hell. I'd say I'd give you back your security deposit, but I spent it."

            "You're the landlord?" Emily asked. Bones nodded.

            "Sad state of affairs, ain't it?" Felix said, taking another drink.

            "You can stay at my place if you want." Bones said. Felix choked.

            "Hell no!" Felix sputtered, wiping his mouth. "Your fleas are as big as this bottle."

            "Let me call a few friends. I'm sure I can find a space to stay at." Emily said.

            "Naw, that's alright. I have a few creds now. I'm sure I can find a new place to stay."

            "Not without a SIN, buddy boy." Emily reminded Felix. Felix closed his eyes tightly.

            "Dammit Bones!" Felix shouted. "Why did you have to delete that?"

            "Look." Bones said, putting the shotgun on the floor. "Let me explain something. You are a magician. That's an unfortunate fact in today's society." Felix opened his mouth, but Bones held up a finger. "Although I'm not one of your 'talented elite', I have worked with and studied them enough to know what happens. You know who Lone Star has on duty twenty four hours a day?" Bones was silent for two seconds. Felix didn't respond. "A mage, that's who. One that will kick your ass as soon as you trip into the other realm. Whatever shit you call it, astral or something. I'm lucky in the fact that if they want me, they have to come and get me. They can fry _you_ seventeen miles away."

            "Anyway, while you've been at the University, they take a good look at the thumbprint your spirit leaves. And guess what that print is attached to? Your system identification number, that's what. Remember your daring caper about two weeks ago? They know about the shit you pulled. They're looking for you, dude. And as soon as they see that thumbprint, and as soon as someone figures out it's you, they'll find you, and they'll kill you."         

            "What did I get into?" Felix whispered to himself, taking a drink.

            "Whatever it is, you're making hella lotta money and you're not some corp toy." Bones replied. Felix sighed.

            "Yeah. Not that great of a tradeoff."

            "I'd say it was." Emily said. "How else are you going to get this orc?" Felix froze. He clinched his teeth and squeezed the edge of the countertop hard.

            "You want him, right?" Emily said, knowing she hit a nerve with Felix. "I sure would if he shot my parents. Even more so if he stole my stuff."

            "Yeah, I want him." Felix growled, his eyes glowing slightly.

            "What? What happened?" Bones asked, his eyes darting back and forth from Emily and Felix.

            "Some guy tried to rob us on the interstate a few days ago." Felix explained with a voice totally different from his own while his face pointed at the floor. "He tried to kill us in a grocery store the next day, and then came to my house, killed my parents, shot both of us and stole some very personal, very magical property from me." He stood up suddenly and turned to Emily, his eyes blazing brightly. "Oh yeah, I want him."

            "Good. Calm down and let me call some friends. We'll take care of the basics first." Emily said, smiling but obviously unnerved by Felix's sudden shift of attitude. Felix exhaled sharply, ran his fingers through his hair and breathed deeply.

            "Yes, do call some friends." Felix said in his usual tone of voice. He reached into his pocket, withdrew the pocket secretary and handed it to Emily. She opened it, dialed in eleven digits and held it to her head.

            "Hello?" Emily asked the phone. "Yeah, you still have my space there? No shit. I'm sure you already heard. That's why I'm asking." She paused for a second to listen. "You're kidding. You're still doing that? Yeah, yeah. Alright. Later." She closed up the secretary and gave it back to Felix.

            "Okay, get your stuff." Emily said. She looked at the floor under her. "Uh, do you have stuff left?"

            "Haven't checked yet." Felix replied. He put the bottle in the sink and went into his bedroom. He came out with his suit. The Kevlar and assorted plates inside the suit held up to the rounds of ammunition the vandals pumped into Felix's apartment. The suit itself, however, did not. Shreds of cloth sparsely covered the armor underneath.

            "Ouch." Bones replied. "I have a feeling I know what gun they were using now."

            "After we get to my friends house, we can go out to get another one." Emily suggested. Felix's eyes flashed.

            "No, I don't need another one. C'mon." Felix said, and walked out of the building fast, the tattered excuse for a suit in hand. Emily trotted behind him.

            "What? What's going on?"

            "Just come on." Felix said, getting into the car and slamming the door. Emily did the same. Emily started the car and pulled out onto the street.

            "Where am I going?" Emily asked.

            "Eighth and University." Felix replied, buttoning up his shirt and tucking it into his pants. They drove silently to the intersection. When Emily parked, Felix jumped out of the car, grabbed the suit and ran across the street for the dry cleaners. He pulled the door open and marched inside. The man behind the counter looked up and jumped.

            "Hey!" the man screamed. "I didn't call the cops! Really! I swear!" He covered his head as Felix approached. Felix stopped at the counter and slammed the suit down. The man looked at it.

            "What the hell happened to this?" He asked, lowering his guard and picking it up.

            "Doesn't matter. I need it fixed." Felix growled.

            "What do you mean, _fixed_?" The man said, dropping it on the counter. "I can't _fix_ this." Felix grabbed the man by his shirt collar and yanked him forward.

            "I do NOT want to hear that!" Felix yelled.

            "Hey, c'mon!" The man yelled back. "What do I look like? A frickin' tailor! I do _minor repairs! That's it! You can't _repair_ this! This is _destroyed_!" Felix turned him loose. The man reached for his neck._

            "Well then, what does a new one cost?" Felix asked sternly.

            "I, I don't sell…"

            "What does a new one cost!" Felix shouted, flashing his eyes at him.      

            "AAAA! About four grand! Don't kill me!" The man squealed, his arms covering his head again.

            "You get me another suit. Dark gray. Take the measurements off that." Felix commanded, thumping the destroyed suit with his knuckles. "Bring the receipt and don't try any of your price fixing shit. Understand?"

            "Yeah. Okay." The man hurriedly blurted. "When do you want it?"

            "Wednesday." Felix replied turning to the door.

            "But…" The man started. Felix swiveled around.

            "I said Wednesday!" Felix shouted.

            "But it is Wednesday!" The man cried. Felix opened his mouth, then shut it. He opened it again, but shut it. He dug into his pocket and pulled out his pocket secretary. He flipped it open standing in the middle of the shop and jabbed the calendar button below the screen. Sure enough, according to the pocket secretary, it was Wednesday.

            "Oh." Felix meekly replied. "Uh, well then, Friday is good. Uh, yeah." Felix's total loss of cool made him uneasy. He turned straight to the door and pushed on it, then pulled on it when the door didn't budge. Felix nearly bumped into Emily as he left the cleaners.

            "Whoa!" Felix exclaimed. "Sorry. Where are you going?"

            "Up here to the liquor store." Emily pointed to a small liquor store half way down the block.

            "Oh." Felix followed Emily up the block to the grubby little shop. The interior was crammed with shelves and tables full of old stuffers, magazines, chips and other odds and ends. This store had become more of a hangout for local vagrants than an actual place of business. Behind the counter was a hairy-faced, unkempt dwarf bent over a small trid receiver with a soldering gun. The smoke from the solder mixed and twisted from the smoke coming off the cigarette balanced off the edge of the charred counter. Emily stepped up to the register.

            "Can I get a pack of Cobalt's?" Emily asked at the back of the dwarf's head.

            "Only got 'em by the carton." The dwarf replied without turning around.

            "Can I get a carton, then?" Emily asked. The dwarf reached above his head to the overhang above the counter. He brought down a dark blue package wrapped in cellophane. He dropped it on the counter and returned to work.

            "Sixty-seven fifty-eight." He said in an indifferent tone. Emily sighed slightly in irritation. She dug four twenty-nuyen notes out of her pocket and placed them balled up on the counter. She waited for a few seconds for her change.

            "Ahem!" Emily exclaimed.

            "Don't have change." The dwarf replied, still keeping an eye on the work before him. Emily growled under her breath. She grabbed the carton of cigarettes and exited the store, followed closely by Felix.

            "I didn't know you smoked." Felix said in idle conversation.

            "T'ain't for me." Emily replied. She stopped at the curb, looked both ways and trotted across.

            "Then why did you spend eighty bucks on cigarettes?" Felix asked, right behind Emily.

            "You'll see." She opened in the door of the car and got in. After Felix got in, she pulled away from the curb and drove in the direction of her old house. As the city got darker and the scenery grew worse, Felix noticed more and more people on the street that, in his opinion, didn't fit too well into polite society. A disproportionately amount of orcs and trolls were seen by the time the sun fully set and twilight faded away. Felix, whom had little experience around orcs and trolls, felt strange as Emily drove deeper and deeper into the sprawl. At the University, dwarves and elves were fairly common in Felix's classes, where the general rule of thumb was elves made better summoners and dwarves made better sorcerers. There were no orcs or trolls in his classes, and Felix rarely interacted with any at all. Eventually, Emily parked in a parking lot long abandoned by the company that used to own it. Brown, fuzzy weeds stood as tall as Felix's knees through the cracks in the asphalt. At least a dozen stripped car skeletons stood in random spots, housing numerous critters flashing their eyes at Felix and Emily.

            Emily continued briskly, carton of cigarettes in hand and Felix trailing behind, into an abandoned promenade between large, abandoned buildings. Every window that bordered the promenade was either broken or boarded up. Graffiti covered nearly every surface capable of holding spray paint. One particularly interesting specimen caught Felix's eye: a representation of a pig in a Lone Star uniform lying dead on the ground and a very well endowed troll urinating on him. 

Emily entered the building at the farthest end of the promenade through a boarded-up door, crossed the empty, broken tiled floor and descended a still escalator. From there, she walked straight to a door marked "Employees Only" in peeling red stickers and descended yet another flight of stairs. They entered a network of cinder block hallways lighted poorly by long forgotten safety lighting. Emily took a series of seemingly random turns. Eventually, they stopped at the end of a damp hallway only illuminated by the residual lighting of florescent lights a hundred feet behind them. Emily knocked on the door.

"This is where your friends live? Ugh." Felix commented, turning his nose up in disgust. Emily started to unwrap the cellophane from the package of Cobalts. After a few seconds of waiting, a small slot opened in the middle of the door, casting a bright and solid beam of light down the hallway. Small black digits poked through, feeling around the edge.

"Who is it?" A very un-human voice asked. Emily took a pack of cigarettes from the carton and touched the small fingers that stuck out of the slot. The fingers immediately snatched the cigarettes and pulled them through, letting the thin metal flap close noisily. A few seconds later, sounds came from the door that one might associate with a blast barrier opening. A final booming click emitted from the center of the door and started to creep inwards. Inside, standing in front of the door, was a gigantic troll, clad only in a pair of denim shorts. Felix took a step backwards.

"Bubba!" Emily exclaimed and jumped at the troll.

"Circumstance!" Bubba replied in a very booming, yet very articulate voice. The troll caught Circumstance in mid air and hugged her. The scale between the human sized Emily and the troll sized Bubba gave Felix a good estimate of how big a troll really was. Bubba let go of Emily.

"Come on in, Fletch." Emily invited. Felix took a step forward, trying to look into the room before he actually went in. "Don't be afraid. No one here is gonna eat you." Bubba smiled at the statement. "But anyway, I want you to meet Bubba." Emily said.

"How ya doin', Fletch?" Bubba asked, his massive palm extended. Felix stepped forward and extended his hand. Bubba's hand enveloped Felix's, but he shook it gently. "Won't you come inside?"

"Uh, yeah. Thanks." Felix meekly replied. He slowly stepped in, still wary of what was going on.

As he stepped into the light of the room, he could see the troll in better detail. Bubba was around eight feet to Felix's estimate. Bubba was adorned with the standard set or horns, tusks and slightly pointed ears, but looked uncommonly good for a troll. His face was smooth, absent of the typical bumps and warts commonly seen on a troll. His hair was neatly cut. Felix was fairly certain that this man could stop a speeding car if he really wanted to.

"Well, it isn't much, but I like it." Bubba commented, putting his hands on his hips. Felix was surprised at the troll's voice. In the rare experiences he had with trolls, they all sounded as if they were talking around a mouthful of marbles. This man's voice was a pleasant baritone, articulate and kind.

Felix looked around him. The room he was in looked like a very large living room. The carpet looked in fair condition for being over seventy years old. The paint on the walls was yellowed from the thousands of cigarettes smoked there. A kitchen was on his left, and a pair of couches, two chairs and a coffee table situated around a large trid was off to his right. Two people sat on the couch, watching the evening news. Straight in front of him were three doors. One of them was open, revealing a bedroom. Felix assumed all three doors led to bedrooms. Above the kitchen was a mezzanine. A broad, wooden spiral staircase ascended to it. On the mezzanine, Felix saw nothing but bookshelves.

Felix turned around. The front door he entered through looked like someone stole it from a bank vault. Along the wall, there were two more doors and a desk with a computer on top. Piles of papers, parts, chips and disks heaped up against desk like snow   piled on top of a car. Suddenly, something screamed. Felix jumped in surprise and swiveled toward the noise. On the ground was a small white-faced monkey with a pack of Cobalts between his tiny paws. He screamed again at Felix.

"Awww. You wanna light, huh Baby?" Bubba asked. The monkey ran to Bubba and climbed up to his shoulders. It plucked a cigarette from the package and tossed the package away. Bubba dug in the pocket of his shorts for a lighter. He brought it up to monkey, flicked it, and allowed the monkey to light his cigarette. The monkey sat on top of the troll, content and smoking a blue cigarette he held tightly in both paws. Felix couldn't help laughing slightly.

"Yeah, I know." Bubba said. "Terrible habit. I've told him a thousand times." Bubba shook his thick index finger at the creature sitting on his shoulder. The monkey blew a cloud of smoke into the air and continued puffing on the cigarette. He hopped off and ran into the bedroom with the door open, trailing smoke behind.

 "Anyway, I hear you and Circumstance had some difficulties with the local chapter of the Yak." Bubba said. "We still got your room, chickie. You two can shack up in there. But, um, there's the matter of, well, rent."

"What's the matter, stud?" Emily asked in a rather cynical tone. "No work for your kind?"

"Yes, ma'am. North American Stock Exchange is up a hundred and thirteen points in the last month. Tokyo and Nagasaki market up just as high. Hell, you see the news lately?" Bubba asked. Emily shook her head. "Novatech split their stock three times in four hours Monday." Felix whistled in disbelief.

"Okay, but how does that affect work?" Felix asked. Bubba looked at him strangely.

"You'll have to forgive him." Emily said. "He's relatively new to this line of work." Bubba's eyebrows took a dive.

"Dammit, Circumstance! I'm not going to have any green runner wannabes in my house!" Bubba exclaimed. His booming voice echoed for a second. Felix shrunk back, trying to use Emily as cover.

"Hey!" Emily snapped back as she stepped forward. "This man saved my life! He also killed that mother fucker I used to call Dad." Bubba looked at Felix.

"You killed _her father?" Bubba asked in slight disbelief._

"Yes." Felix meekly replied.

"That guy tore me a _few_ assholes over the years, but that doesn't mean you can go with me on a job to screw up." Bubba said. 

"Good, because I'm not in the same line of work as you. Now what does the stock market have to do with someone in your position?"

"Yeah. Anyway, when the stock market does well, businesses do well. That's a 'no shit' statement. However, when businesses are doing well, they tend not to hire as many runners as they would when they're in a slump. They're making more money keeping to themselves. Therefore, we're forced to freelance, a pain in the ass that is profitable only if you get lucky. So that's why I'm asking for rent."

"Oh. Well, yeah. No problem. How much do you want?" Felix asked, digging back into his slacks for his pocket secretary.

"Seven hundred? That'll keep the refrigerator full." Bubba replied, walking to the computer desk. His frame was totally inappropriate. He made the computer before him look like a toy.

"Cool. Account number is…" Felix flipped though the list of accounts. "Bravo, alpha, November, alpha, Juliet, seven, niner, six, four, eight, six. Password to transfer accounts is foxtrot, echo, lima, India, X-ray. Transfer all funds." Bubba typed in each character with two pinkies as Felix read it off in phonetic alphabet.

"Okay, dude. Account's empty." Bubba announced. Then Bubba paused.

"Uh, I never caught your name, dude."

"Fletch."

"Fletch, are you aware that you added a zero to my request?"

"Yeah. Allergic to soy." Felix said. "So is rent paid?" Emily laughed.

"That's the, what, ninth sign you're not a runner. You're too goddamned generous. Let me go show you around. You know Bubba, and you know Baby." Emily turned to the couches around the trid. She put her hand on Felix's shoulder and led him over.

"These two guys are Mystique and Chow Mien." Emily said, pointing at one of them for each name.

"You got it wrong again, Circumstance." One of them said, not turning his head to look at her. Felix leaned over the back of the couch to see that the two gentlemen sitting in front of the trid looked an awful lot alike.

"Are you two twins?" Felix asked.

"No, we just look alike." They said in unison. Emily giggled.

"Shut up." She laughed. "Bubba! Nocturne in her room?"

"Yeah." Bubba replied.

"What about Sparky?"

"Nope. Hasn't been here for three days." Bubba said, still bent over the computer. "And if he doesn't get back soon, Baby's going to be eating those cigarettes instead of burning them." Felix was led over to the rightmost door. Emily pounded on the door.

"Yo! You in there, chica?" Emily shouted. No answer came. Emily tried the knob. It turned as she twisted, so she pushed it open. Over a hundred candles illuminated the room. The bed was turned over on its side against the wall. A white circle nearly twelve feet in diameter was painted directly on the carpet. In the center of the circle and two feet above the floor floated Nocturne. Her legs were crossed and her hands were lying open on her knees. The blue dress she was wearing hung off her back and just barely touched the floor. Beyond that, Felix couldn't make out any other details in the weak candlelight.

"There she is! What's up?" Emily exclaimed.

"I'm busy, Circumstance." Nocturne replied through clinched teeth. "Go away."

"Awww, too busy for me?"

"So help me I'm gonna kick your ass. Go away!" Nocturne growled, trying not to lose her concentration. Emily sighed and slammed the door as hard as she could.

"Anyway, that was Nocturne. I'm sure you actually get to speak to her sometime later." Emily said. She started up the spiral staircase. Felix followed.

The mezzanine started as a small zigzagging hallway of bookshelves that reached the ceiling. Most of the books were old paperbacks of assorted fiction, detective and noir stories and fantasy with random volumes of encyclopedias stuck in. After a third bend in the passageway, a room opened up, slightly larger than Nocturne's bedroom. A lamp in the center of the ceiling adequately lit the room. The walls were also covered with books. However, to Felix's bewilderment, they were all magical texts, making it the largest magical library he had seen outside of the University. In the far corner was a cot with a blanket draped over it. Against the wall next to the cot was a huge plush recliner.

"Doc?" Emily called. She looked around for a second. She then took a small paperback from the shelf in the hallway and tossed it at the recliner. Suddenly, a man appeared in the chair as the book hit. Both Felix and the person sitting down jumped in surprise.

"What! What!" The man exclaimed, looking around wildly. He saw Emily and Felix standing before him and stared straight at them. He exhaled.

"Oh, it's you!" He said. "I thought it was an earthquake."

"Nope, just me. Fletch, this is Doc." Emily said. Felix stepped forward to shake his hand. Doc was the oldest of the group that Felix had so far seen. His hair was pure, bright white, as well as his beard and moustache, which reminded Felix of Santa Claus. He was wearing a white undershirt, a pair of slacks and suspenders.

"How do you do?" Felix asked.

"Well, thanks." Doc replied, shaking his hand from the chair. He looked at Felix for a moment, then at Emily. "So, ya dating magicians nowadays?" Felix heart fluttered in anticipation of Emily's response.

"No, Doc." Emily groaned. "You're always trying to hook me up with a magician. Knock it off, will ya?" Felix's heart sunk slightly.

"Will Fletch be staying around long?" Doc asked, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a red package of cigarettes and a plastic lighter.

"Don't know." Felix replied. Doc lit his cigarette and inhaled on it sharply.

"Well, if you are, stay the hell away from my books." Doc said. He held up the pack of cigarettes to Felix. "Coffin nail?"

"No, thanks." Felix declined, holding up his hand.

"You too young or something?"

"No, I just don't smoke."

"Oh. Nasty habit. I don't encourage it." Doc said, puffing on his cigarette. "So are you gonna let an old man sleep?

"You sleep enough as it is." Emily said, turning to leave.

"Bye." Felix said as he followed Emily. After they left the bookshelf corridors, Felix leaned over to Emily.

"Just exactly why was he invisible?" Felix asked.

"Oh, whenever he's concentrating on something else or isn't really actively thinking, he does that. I guess it's a habit people get in their old age." Emily replied. When the reached the bottom of the stairs, someone started pounding on the front door. Immediately, the monkey rushed across the floor, smoking like a coal burning locomotive, to the door. He pushed open the slot, pulled a pack of Colbalts back in and pushed a button on the door. The door went through it's system of unlocking. As soon as the final booming click came, the door slammed open. A man rushed in and to the left.

"Move! Move!" The man yelled and ran into a room. He slammed the door. After a second, a sound similar to a fire hose being blasted into a toilet came from the bathroom.

"Sparky's home." Bubba said, not looking up from the computer. The sound of forceful urination continued for well over two minutes. Then a sigh of immense relief, then a flush. The faucet turned on, then off, then the door opened. Sparky stepped out, shaking his hands and sending drops of water everywhere.

Sparky was a very tall black human. Most of his height came from the nine-inch flattop. He wore a leather jacket, leather pants and motorcycle boots. He had a dozen chains hanging from his shoulders, his belt loops to his pockets and loosely around his thighs.

"Where have _you been?" Bubba asked, finally looking up from the monitor._

"I've been busy." Sparky said, still standing in front of the bathroom. "I mean, _really busy. I haven't seen my dick for four days." That statement got to Bubba. He started to laugh._

"Serious! Shit, think about it. You take a piss, you take a shower, you bang some chick, ya gonna see yer dick, right? Four days!" Sparky explained. "You see your dick everyday, right Circumstance? Twice, three times at least, right?"

"I didn't know you had such an attachment to it, Spark." Emily said, slightly cracking with laughter.

"Shit yeah!" Sparky exclaimed. He pointed at his crotch with both hands. "Built-in entertainment center!" Emily lost it after that statement.

"Oh, the things I missed these past two years." She sighed.

"So what brings you back to the sixth circle of Hell?" Sparky asked.

"Apartment was unlivable."

"Lone Star fumigate?"

"Nope. Some guy let loose with a minigun inside. Now it has wonderful air conditioning."

"No shit." Sparky replied. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Fletch. New mage type friend I met a week ago." Emily said. Felix and Sparky approached each other and shook hands in the middle of the room.

"Nice to meetcha. You see your dick everyday, right?" Sparky asked while shaking Felix's hand.

"At least six times daily." Felix replied. Sparky let go and reached into the pocket inside his jacket. He withdrew a black credstick.

"Criminy!" Emily said. "That thing loaded?"

            "Yeah, right. I'm not blessed with the same outrageous luck you are, little miss." He pushed the button. "'Bout… two and a half grand." He turned and tossed it to Bubba. "There, ya goddamn slave driver. That's the last of it." Bubba caught it and stuck it into the computer.

            "Yep, it is." Bubba said. "That'll teach you forget my gun on a job."

            "Sparky! You didn't!" Emily gasped.

            "Yeah, I did."

            "That 1.3 caliber Revolver of Sudden Death? The one that killed seven people in one shot? The one that destroyed a riot control drone in two?" Emily asked in amazement. Felix's eyebrow cocked. This was a gigantic gun.

            "Yes, he did. I also finally made a silencer and flash suppresser that would attach without become a projectile itself. And what does our spunky little rigger do?" Bubba asked. "Hmmm?"

            "He… left it inside a corp while doing a job."

            "That's right. But now he's forgiven." Bubba said in a condescending tone.

            "Now, I may be a bit inexperienced, but shouldn't a 1.3 caliber revolver, well, quite frankly, kill you with the recoil?" Felix asked, his hands in his pockets.

            "Yep. I wasn't carrying it to fire. I was carrying it to scare people. Goodnight." Sparky walked into the center bedroom, followed by the monkey and a trail of smoke.


	6. Chapter VI

Chapter Six

            Felix was on a still lake, lying back in a rowboat, fishing and taking in the magnificent splendor of the surrounding meadows and snow-capped peaks. For the first time in months he was able to totally relax. Suddenly, a gigantic shark popped out of the water, swallowed half of the boat and submerged again, pulling the boat downwards into the lake. Felix scrambled to the end of the boat pointing skyward, dropping his pole in the water. The shark lunged forward again, ready to swallow the whole boat. Felix awoke, flailing and kicking, pushing backwards. He found himself on the couch, where he fell asleep hours prior. Bubba was sitting on the opposite end, tilting the end of the couch Felix was sitting on upwards. He looked at Felix, very puzzled.

            "What?" He asked. When Felix finally figured out what was happening, he saw the entire place was dark except for the trid warming up to a bright blue. Bubba was in the same shorts he was in the day prior, but now had a white t-shirt on. It's sleeves were ripped off.

            "Sorry. You scared the crap out of me." Felix panted. He looked around. "What time is it?"

            "One o'clock." Bubba replied. A small digital display on the bottom corner of the trid flipped over to 1:00 AM. The channel changed automatically. A menu bar at the top of the screen displayed the name of the show: _AI, and that it was a quiz show. Felix arched his eyebrows._

            "You, watch _AI_?" He asked, surprised. Bubba nodded without looking at Felix, uncoiling a small controller. He plugged it into the remote control.

            "You, uh, have another one of those?" Felix asked. Bubba pointed below the trid to a long drawer in the table. Felix got off the couch, letting his end rise six inches higher. He opened the drawer and took out another controller like Bubba's, then jumped back on the couch. He unwound the controller and asked Bubba to plug his into the remote control, which he did.

            "Okay, all you home players." The orange haired, English accented host of the show said to the camera. "Get your names and passwords in if you're gonna play with us tonight. You've got sixty seconds." The screen went blank, then flashed "detecting two players…". The screen divided and displayed an alphabet for the players to enter their names and passwords.

            "I must warn you," Felix said, smiling slightly to himself, as he entered his name and password in on the grid. "I'm pretty good at this." When he hit "accept", the grid vanished and read "Welcome back, Felix X. Page. Your current total is: 18,699 points. Current accuracy: 70.3%. Current rank: 72nd." Bubba had yet to enter his name or password in. Felix felt pretty smug showing off how well he had done at this game.

            "Want to wager, say, eighteen thousand points?" Bubba said, still looking at the screen. Felix looked at Bubba.

            "Eighteen… do you even have that many points?" Felix asked in disbelief.

            "Would you like to wager eighteen thousand points?" Bubba asked again. Felix looked back at the screen.

            "You have twenty seconds left." Felix said.

            "Would you like to wager eighteen thousand points?"

            "Are you going to enter your name or what?"

            "Would you like to wager eighteen thousand points?" Bubba asked yet again. Felix was confident he would rob Bubba easily. How hard could a troll be to beat at a quiz show?

            "Okay. Eighteen thousand." Felix said, almost certain he could take on a troll with little effort. He was very excited at doubling his current total. Felix entered the wager menu and set it up for eighteen thousand points. Bubba entered his name with lightning speed. He got his password accepted with four seconds left. Felix's face almost turned white.

            "You're Archimedes Pribnow." Felix said in a grim tone. The screen read "Welcome back, Archimedes Pribnow. Your current total is: 102,600 points. Current accuracy: 92.2%. Current rank: 1st." Bubba approved the wager of eighteen thousand points. Felix swallowed hard and also approved the wager. The orange haired game show host in the suit came back on.

            "Well, our contestants are keyed in and ready to go. Let's see if our home players are ready. Bring up the Top Ten list." A list of the top ten home players, with Bubba's moniker the top, scrolled down and stopped on the left side of the screen. "And Archimedes Pribnow is still leading the pack for his or her eleventh straight week, followed by The Archbishop, who's a distant second with eight-one thousand points even. In our big wagers department, we've got…" The top ten list scrolled down and out of sight and was replaced by a list of the largest wagers of the evening. The audience gasped in amazement.

            "Whoa!" The host exclaimed. "It seems Archimedes is leading both lists tonight! He's betting eighteen thousand of his hard earned points against seventy-second ranked Felix X. Page, who stands to double his current total." The host leaned in on the camera and put his hand up next to his mouth. "But I don't see that happening tonight." He whispered. "Good luck to you Felix. I head Dr. Pribnow is an AI himself. Good luck to all our home players and contestants. They'll need it to beat the AI!" The host walked off, holding his hand out to the side to reveal a gigantic square on one of it's points, holding one hundred booths containing one hundred contestants on a brightly lit and brightly decorated soundstage.

            Felix received one of the worst beatings he had ever had the pleasure of attending. Although he improved his accuracy of answering questions by seven percent, he was in no way a match to Bubba, who was answering nine out of ten questions correctly and consistently. Felix ended that episode of _AI with one thousand points as his cumulative total, knocking him beyond the top one hundred ranked players. He was nearly shaking when the show came to a close._

            "You assumed you'd beat me. Why?" Bubba asked, coiling the wire slowly around the controller.

            "Because you're a troll."

            "And you think trolls are stupid." Bubba said. Felix opened his mouth to deny it, but Bubba answered first. "Which, unfortunately, is true." Felix shut his mouth, then opened it again.

            "Then how'd you get so good at trivia?"

            "I wasn't born like this, you know." Bubba said, turning to Felix. "I was just as normal and as plain as you are now. I had a job. A good job, teaching English at the University of Washington."

            "So what happened?" Felix asked.

            "This happened!" Bubba exclaimed, pointing at himself. Felix shrunk back against the arm of the couch slightly. "Something tells me you don't get very much exposure to metahumans." Felix sighed and looked at the floor.

            "I didn't mean to offend you. Sorry for acting like such an ass." Felix said.

            "At least you knew you were acting like an ass. Most people don't." Bubba said. He got off the couch, sending Felix into freefall for a quarter of a second. He walked into the kitchen, took two beers out of the refrigerator and returned to give one to Felix. Bubba sat in one of the other chairs to spare Felix being hoisted in the air. Bubba popped the bottle cap off with the end of his horn. Felix smiled.

            "It's not all bad." Bubba replied. "Naw, you're not an ass. You're not a bad person at all. You're the one who bought this beer, you know."

            "Hey, I can't just freeload." Felix explained. "Thanks for letting me sleep on your couch."

            "Thanks for saving Circumstance a few days ago." Bubba said. "I can't say what I'd do if anything happened to her." He drained the rest of the bottle in one shot.

            "You two close?" Felix asked, secretly dreading that they were involved with each other.

            "Closest I could say is 'surrogate daughter'. We've known each other since the beginning.

"Been shadowrunning since the beginning?" Felix asked.

"Yep. Close on five years now. Maybe I should hire myself out for a discount. An anniversary special."

"Yeah, maybe."

* * * * * * *

"Come on!" Sparky shouted at the door while pounding on it with his right fist. "It's me, Morris! Open the goddamned door!" A deadbolt disengaged and the door cracked open, allowing one large eye to peek out. The figure sighed, closed the door to unhook the door chain, then opened the door just wide enough to let Sparky squeeze through with the large packages he carried.

"Jesus, Sparky, you scared the hell out of me." The troll said. Sparky closed the door behind him, shutting out most of the light from the small apartment. The troll crawled back to the corner of the room and sat back on the couch.

"Anything happen while I was gone? You okay?" Sparky asked. He approached the couch and sat down on the floor in front of him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Morris said flatly. "Nothing happened."

"You're fine?" Sparky asked while he ran a pocketknife through the tape on the packages. "Then why is there a hole the size of a troll's fist in my tridscreen?" Morris crossed his arms and grunted. Sparky stood up and walked into the kitchenette. From the darkness, a portable trid receiver warmed up. Sparky sat next to it on the counter and turned the channel to the news.

"Good evening." The news anchor stated to the audience. "Seattle's top story for this Tuesday evening: University of Washington professor Morris Pribnow is still missing and wanted for questioning for the deaths of two students in his English class last Friday morning…" Sparky turned to Morris.

"That's why my new tridscreen is broken?" Sparky asked. Morris did not respond.

"Eyewitnesses say during his Friday morning lecture, Professor Pribnow experienced instantaneous genetic expression and was soon after attacked by a small group of students, two of which died during the exchange."

"Did you manage to dig that shiv out of your back yet?" Sparky asked. Morris did not comment. The screen switched to a man behind a podium stacked with microphones. The name John Montgomery III zipped in along the bottom of the screen, as well as his title of Vice Chairman of University of Washington. He was a white man in a black suit. Both were starched and very stiff.

"This is a most unfortunate incident, I agree, but we cannot allow a professor, no matter what the circumstances, to harm a student!" John Montgomery pounded on the podium. "He must be found and held responsible for his actions!"

"Can you believe this drek?" Sparky asked.

"Vice Chairman Montgomery!" A voice off screen called. "Do you feel that Professor Pribnow was justified defending himself in the attack?"

"I have no comment at this time. Thank you, no more questions." The Vice Chairman turned away, being pursued by questions like "Are you a racist?" and "Will the other attackers be disciplined?"

"Wow. I've never seen anyone hate trogs the way he does." Sparky commented. Morris growled at him. "Get used to it, Professor. People will call you worse."

"Yeah, I mean, he was like on the floor and naked and everything." An eyewitness began to give her side of the story. "So, like, most of the room cleared out, but me and some friends were there seeing if he needed and help. Then these wannabe ganger assholes come in and start wailin' on him! Like ten of 'em! So the Professor just tears into them, you know. He grabs one kid's head and just slams it into the wall, and punched another one so hard he nearly ripped him in half! Those pricks had it coming, you know…" Sparky turned the trid off and let the cool darkness settle in again.

"People are sympathizing. That's good." Sparky said. He returned to the packages in front of Morris. From one, he pulled out a complete set of undergarments tailored to fit his new form and a new suit. "Here. Stop running around my apartment naked, will you?" Morris began to put on his new clothes as best he could without standing up. The apartment ceiling already had horn holes in it.

"So why are you doing this, Sparky?" Morris asked as he wriggled around on the sofa trying to dress.

"So you'll pass me in English."

"No, seriously, son. Why?"

"I believe in a fair fight."

"So how do you justify firing a machine gun into a crowd of rampaging hooligans?"

"That was fair." Sparky replied. "Besides, they were riot rounds. How's that feel? Everything made right?"

"Yeah, everything's fine." Morris replied.

"Okay. Well, I need to talk to you about something. I need you to seriously consider this." Sparky sat on top of the second package he brought in. "You're a fugitive, plain and simple. The public and the police hate trolls. At least, I think that's what you're going to be classified as now. There's only one real option open to you now, Professor. Do you think you could perform a shadowrun?"

Bubba opened his eyes. He was asleep in the chair diagonal from Felix, who was still asleep on the sofa. Bubba blinked a few times, then cursed his recurring dream. He got up, scratched his side and went back to his room.

* * * * * * *

A small speaker in the desk buzzed. The man sitting at the desk asleep jumped at the sudden sound. He leaned forward and beat the button with the flat of his hand.

"Kyoko!" The man growled, irritated for being startled. "I told you not to call me for the rest of the day!"

"I'm very sorry, Shira-_san, _but there is a…"

"Not for anything!" Shira screamed. No response came from the other end. A knock came from the door. Shira looked up and smiled. He opened his desk drawer and withdrew a large revolver with a twelve-inch barrel. He stood up and pressed the intercom button again. 

"Kyoko, did he come to my office?" Shira asked, much calmer than before.

"Yes." She answered back. Shira raised the gun and blasted three times into the middle of the door. He plopped back down in his large executive office chair, quite proud of himself. He reached to the desk and hit the door button. The door slid away to the left to reveal an orc standing there, scowling. Three wounds above his stomach bled slowly. Shira's eyes opened in shock. He tried to raise the gun again to fire, but the orc stepped forward and waved his hand in the air, extending his magical force to knock the revolver out of his hand. Shira stood and backed against the chair until the chair hit the wall behind him.

"Don't kill me. Don't kill me or the Yakuza will…" Shira babbled.

"Shut up." The orc said. He sat down in the chair before Shira's desk.

"Who are you?" Shira asked, still leaning against the chair.

"Never mind. Sit down." The orc ordered. His voice sounded as if he was speaking with a mouth full of glass. Shira sat down, but did not move his chair forward. Shira noticed that the orc was wrapped tightly in bandages around his head and arms. They were spotted with blood here and there. The bleeding from the three wounds above his stomach had nearly ceased.

"What are you doing here?" Shira asked, looking the orc over. The orc reached into his pocket and tossed a small CD on Shira's desk. Shira scooted forward in his enormous chair, plucked the CD off of the deck and slid it into a small slot. A thin monitor slowly lifted out of another slot on the deck. When the screen extracted fully, a picture displayed of Shira and two much larger men standing outside of the apartment Emily used to live in. Shira tapped the screen, scrolling through pictures of Shira and his men entering the apartment, harassing Emily, assembling a large machine gun, and opening fire on everything in the apartment.

"Where did you get these?" Shira asked, barely able to hold back his rage.

"You must be awful dumb to think you can create all that commotion without having anyone notice." The orc said. Shira jumped to his feet, sending his chair into the wall. He leaned forward.

"I will kill you for insulting me!" Shira screamed. The orc thrust his hand forward, tossing Shira back into his chair the same way he tossed the gun into the corner of the room.

"You'll never get a chance. It would benefit you to listen to me." The orc growled around his maw full of teeth and tusks. "Are you interested in contacting the woman in the photographs?"

"Yes." Shira responded, still adjusting himself in the chair.

"How much of a bounty would you offer for her?" The orc asked. Shira paused and looked at the orc and smiled.

"You, _know where this girl is?"_

"I know how to start looking." The orc replied.

* * * * * * *

"Fifteen eight, double run for fourteen, nobs for fifteen." Emily rattled off, tapping each card as she counted her points. She tapped the peg across the cribbage board and dropped it into a hole, leaving three inches between that peg and the last one. Bubba and Felix both sulked, cards on the table.

            "I should have never let you teach me how to play." Felix groaned.

            "No joke." Bubba added.

            "That's okay. Mah Jongg?"

            "No!" Felix and Bubba exclaimed at the same time. Felix stood up and walked into the middle of the living room, his hands on the back of his head.

            "What time is it?" Felix asked.

            "Four." Bubba said, shuffling the deck.

            "Damn. Are they ever going to call?" Felix groaned, stalking over to the couch and flopping down on it.

            "You only called yesterday. Every pawn shop and fence knows you're looking for that focus." Emily said. "You need to stop climbing the walls."

            "Yeah, yeah." Felix moaned, face down. Felix looked up over the arm of the sofa when a door opened. It was Nocturne. In the regular light of the apartment he could see her in much greater detail than in the candlelight. She was very slender and looked very Celtic; fiery red hair tied back loosely and bright green eyes. She looked about Felix and Emily's age. She wore the same dark blue dress she wore two days prior when Felix first saw her. As she passed the couches, Felix thought Nocturne walked very smoothly. As he sat up to look over the end of the couch, he saw she was, in fact, floating half an inch from the ground.

            "Hey stranger. Any luck?" Bubba asked, collecting the cards off the table.

            "No." Nocturne replied, sighing. She floated into the kitchen. "I'm beginning to think Owl doesn't want me to know something." She opened the refrigerator and began to rummage around.

            "Patience, dear. Remember the first lesson of the Owl." Bubba replied loudly over his shoulder as if he had recited the sentence a million times. Nocturne closed the refrigerator door.

            "Well Circumstance slamming the door didn't help any." Nocturne said, floating back into the living room and to the couch Felix was peering over. As she floated around, Felix scooted over to let her sit but still stared at her in awe.

            "Hello." Nocturne said. "Were you the person who was with Circumstance two nights ago?"

            "What?" Felix said, snapping out of his little trance and looking her in the eye. "Uh, yeah, I was. Hi." Felix extended his hand. Nocturne shook it delicately.

            "So do you stare at everyone like that, or just me?" Nocturne asked smiling slightly.

            "Oh, geez." Felix exclaimed, looking at the ceiling in embarrassment. "I, um, well, have a fascination with, uh, shamans. I didn't mean it." Nocturne smiled.

            "Thank you." Nocturne said. "I didn't know I was so interesting."

            "Well, go around floating like that and I can guarantee it." Felix said. Both Emily and Bubba cringed slightly.

            "It's out of necessity. I can't walk." Nocturne said. Felix cringed just as Emily and Bubba did. He hung his head.

            "I'm sorry." Felix said.

            "Time!" Nocturne exclaimed, looking over at Emily and Bubba. Emily looked over at a clock in the kitchen.

            "Forty-eight seconds." Emily replied. "Damn, Fletch, you got sucked in fast."

            "Say what?" Felix said, snapping his head up. Nocturne smiled.

            "Sorry, dear. It's a game I play with anyone who I meet here. I can usually get someone to beg for forgiveness in two minutes, but you were easy." Nocturne explained.

            "Then forget it!" Felix exclaimed. "I'm not sorry!"

            "Now, now. No reason to be rude." Nocturne said, keeping her tone of voice even.

            "What a dirty trick!" Felix barked. He stood up. "Why should I feel sorry for you? Using your already _unfortunate_ disability to get other people to feel even worse? What do you think I am? You know what, here…" Felix dug into his pocket and tossed a few coins at Nocturne. "This what you want? Huh?" Nocturne's mouth hung open slightly.

            "Goodness, calm down! I'm sorry!" Nocturne exclaimed, holding her hands up.

            "Time!" Felix exclaimed. As Nocturne and Emily sat there dumbfounded, Bubba roared with laughter.

            "Ho ho! That's funny!" Bubba laughed. Felix leaned forward to Nocturne

            "By the way, I wasn't fighting entirely fair." Felix said smiling. Nocturne smiled back.

            "Neither was I." Nocturne replied. Felix plopped down.

            "Okay, enough of the fooling around. What are you doing here? Will you be joining our little group?"

            "No, I will not be. I'm waiting for someone to call me about a focus some guy stole from me."

            "Must be a great focus."

            "Not interested in the focus. I want to find the guy."

            "I bet." Nocturne said. Suddenly, breaking the momentary silence, ringing came from Bubba's pants. Felix stood up. Bubba took the phone out of his pants and held it to his head. After Bubba said hello, he switched to what sounded like Japanese. Felix looked to Nocturne. She shrugged her shoulders. After a few more seconds of Bubba speaking fluent Japanese, he punched a button on the phone with his pinky and shoved it back into his pocket.

            "Work!" Bubba exclaimed. The middle bedroom door burst open as one of the twins ran out. The other one followed closely, jumping on one foot as he tried to put pants over his other leg.

            "Please tell me you said work." The twins said in unison.

            "Get Doc and Spark. We need to be there in thirty minutes." Bubba said, pointing upstairs. One twin ran up the staircase while the other one opened the door to Sparky's room. Sparky was inside, sleeping on a pile of dirty clothes and cardboard containers of all shapes and sizes. Baby the monkey was jumping up and down on his back, smoking a cigarette and chirping "Who is it?" over and over again.

            "I don't think he's going anywhere." Mystique said, looking back at Bubba.

            "Neither is Doc." Chow Mein said as he descended the staircase. "He just barked at me and turned invisible again." Bubba looked at the floor.

            "Crap! I do not need to do a job without a mage!" Bubba growled.

"What about Fletch?" Circumstance asked.

"Circumstance…" Felix growled under his breath.

"I can't take someone I barely know on a job!" Bubba said to Emily.

"How else are you going to get to know him? He'll do alright. Please?" Bubba looked at the floor in silence for a few seconds.

"Fine. Fletch. You're coming with us." Bubba said. Felix leaned over to Emily.

"I do not want to do this…" Felix said under his breath.

"Please?" Emily asked back. "We need you." Felix just grunted and nodded his head, unable to resist her.

            "Thank you." Emily replied.

            "Everyone get yer gear and be in the car in five minutes." Bubba commanded.

            "Oh crud. Bubba!" Felix called. Bubba turned to him.

            "Yeah?"

            "My stuff is at the cleaners."

            "I can do that. Anything else?"

            "Yes." Emily interrupted. "No gun." Bubba silently cursed.

            "Okay, one second." Bubba said. He walked into the bathroom, ducking under the doorframe, and came out with a small pistol. He tossed it at Felix.

            "Take the fletcher. Make sure it's on semi. None of that burst fire nonsense 'til I tell you, okay?"

            "Uh…" Felix turned the gun over in his hands. Emily sighed and snatched the gun out of his hands. She flipped a switch to semi automatic and tossed it back at him.

            "Know how to fire it?" Emily asked in a condescending tone.

            "Yes, though I wish I didn't." Felix replied in the same tone. He put it in his pocket, leaving a rather obvious bulge on his left leg. Bubba went to the door next to the bathroom and went inside, he came out with a black leather trench coat large enough to pitch a tent with an a pair of gigantic boots.

            "Hurry it up! We gotta get out of here!" Bubba bellowed as he pulled his second boot on. He pushed the button on the door and waited as it went through it's locking procedures. When it opened, Bubba, Felix, Emily, Nocturne, Chow Mein and Mystique all left single file into the maze of hallways. Felix followed closely behind Bubba. He was surprised when he took a sudden left down a hallway. After a few more seconds of walking, they came to a large metal door. Behind that was what was left of a parking garage. The floor above had partially collapsed into the structure. This left just enough room for a Deluxe Luxury Limited Edition Ford Bison.

            "Nice car." Felix said.

            "Thanks." The rest of the party said in unison. Felix figured the entire group had a share of the vehicle. They all piled into it. Chow Mein and Mystique got up front. Mystique sat in the driver seat. He opened the glove compartment and pulled out a tangle of wires. He pulled the apart and inserted the ends into sockets on the dashboard. He took the other ends and inserted them into invisible sockets in his head, neck and eye. This surprised Felix slightly. He'd seen people plug in all the time from their head; not their eye. Mystique laid back and appeared to fall asleep. The engine jumped to life a roared a few times. It crept out onto the nearly barren street outside.

            "Address please." Mystique asked, laying back.

            "Check the archive. Should be the one address from April." Bubba replied.

            "Bellvue?

            "Bingo. But we'll be stopping at Eighth and University. That right, Fletch? That's the only cleaners I know of." Bubba said. Felix nodded. The car slowed, made a sharp u-turn and headed back for the University district. When they got there, Felix jumped out of the car and ran inside the cleaners. The owner looked up when the door chime rang and backed up.

            "Now what do you want?" The owner whined.

            "Suit! Now!" Felix snapped. "I'm in a hurry." The owner went under the counter, he eyes fixed on Felix. He came up with a dark gray suit in a thin plastic bag. Felix grabbed it and headed for the door.

            "Hey! My money!" The owner shouted.

            "I'll pay you later. Thanks!" Felix replied, dropping his evil demeanor. He jumped back in the car.

            "Okay, go." Felix said and tore the bag off. He started to pull off his clothes and put on the suit. The other people in the car looked at him strangely.

            "Uh, is this going to be a habit?" Emily asked.

            "We're going to get a job, right?" Felix asked, pulling his pants up and tucking his shirt in. "Wanna look my best."

            "I'd rather look like I can go into a fight and win, but hey, that's just me." Bubba said. Felix grunted at him as he had the cuff of his sleeve in his mouth, trying to button it with the other hand. Emily took his other wrist and buttoned the cuff for him.

            "Oh, thanks." Felix said, smiling. He was looking for any excuse to touch Emily or vice versa. He only hoped it wasn't blatantly evident.

            "Fletch. Let go." Emily said. He was still holding her hand. He pulled his hand away and made a few incomprehensible noises out of embarrassment. He wiggled around to put his jacket on.

            "Hey, that's sharp." Nocturne complimented. "Killers with style." Felix rolled his eyes.

            "I sincerely hope not." Felix said, tying his necktie.

            "You won't be with any luck." Bubba said. "Then again, this isn't a very lucky profession." Felix put the same sneakers on he had on before.

            "So are we really going to Bellvue?" Felix asked, finally getting situated. "Must be a wealthy client."

            "That he is." Bubba said. "But his payroll certainly doesn't reveal it. This guy is such a tightwad. I would have told him we were busy, but we really need the money."

            "Any idea what we'll be doing?"

            "I really don't care. Just as long as I don't have to shit on a desk again." Bubba said. Felix started laughing.

            "Circumstance already tell you that story?" Bubba asked. Felix nodded. Bubba smiled. "Oh yeah. Those were the days." They drove out to Bellvue. The scenery did exactly the opposite thing the drive out to Emily's apartment did. The streets looked nicer and nicer. Fewer and fewer people were on the streets. Soon, only the occasional white, middle aged human jogged by or a bored, trussed up housewife walked a small, unnecessary dog. As they approached a large iron security gate, it opened slowly, letting them through without pause. The Bison slowed to a crawl to negotiate the small windy streets of the gated community. Eventually, it stopped in an enormous driveway capable of holding at least eight cars. The group filed out with Bubba in the lead, Felix following close behind him. The line stopped at the tall, oaken double door studded in iron. A security camera on the roof noisily whined as it panned to look at the group. After a few seconds, the door clicked. Bubba pushed it open.

            It was obvious that the client was rich. As Felix looked around, he noticed a couple paintings on the wall that he remembered seeing in a textbook in an art appreciation class. Bubba walked though a door on the left, then up a staircase, closely followed by the entire line. The staircase terminated into a long hallway, and the hallway terminated into a small den sparsely furnished with a couch, a desk and a chair. As everyone stood, Bubba took a seat on the couch. They waited for a minute before another gentleman, dressed in a tuxedo, entered.

            "The master will be in shortly. Will you be requiring anything?" He asked. Bubba silently shook his head. The butler bowed slightly, made an about face, then exited. After yet another minute of waiting, the door opened again. An average looking human dressed in an average looking suit came in and sat at the desk.

            "Afternoon, sir." The gentleman said. He looked at the group around Bubba. "Will this be all the associates you will be employing on this job?"

            "The usual group, plus one new. Doc will not be joining us tonight." Bubba replied. "What will you be requiring of us?"

            "Actually, it's not I." The gentleman said. Bubba cocked and eyebrow.

            "Oh?"

            "I have an associate that will be requiring your services. Do you object?"

            "Not at all. Any friend of yours…"

            "A word of caution, though. Do not be alarmed by his appearance. Technically, he does not exist." The gentleman said. Everyone cocked an eyebrow. Felix wondered just what didn't "technically exist". After all, neither did he. The gentleman nodded and went to the door. As he opened it, a small figure, about half a meter tall, flew in with thin, iridescent wings and landed on the desk. He stood for a moment, fluttering it's wings for a moment. It wore almost exactly what the other gentleman was wearing. The winged figure looked exactly like a toy.

            "Oh, how darling!" Nocturne exclaimed. The figure rolled it's eyes and tossed up it's hands.

            "Christ, man!" The figure exclaimed in a very masculine, New Yorker accented voice. He turned around. "Do I have to deal with this shit from here on out?"

            "No, no." The gentleman said. "I'm positive they will be more sensitive in the future. Correct?" The gentleman looked at Nocturne sternly. Nocturne blushed brightly.

            "Dreadfully sorry, sir. Please excuse me." Nocturne said.

            "Yeah, dat's more like it." The winged figure said. He looked at the ceiling and sighed. "Okay, okay. I figure I owe ya dis much. Go ahead, get yer gawkin' outta yer system." The figure slowly spun around, his hands out to his sides. From his back came beautiful shining wings, emerging from two tailored slits in his suit. "I am what's classified as _homo noblius faerium_, or for da rest of us dat ain't scientists, a fairy." He returned to facing the group, pointing. "And da first one dat makes some homosexual joke is a dead man!"

            "Remarkable." Felix said in awe.

            "Yeah, ain't I, though?" The fairy replied. "Now, you didn't hafta deal with the same shit some of us did, but didja ever see da 'Incredible Shrinking Man'?"

            "I think so." Felix replied.

            "Dat's what happened ta me. But at least I got some wings outta the deal."

            "I beg your pardon, sir, but I could honestly care less about your UGE case. I am here seeking employment, and _you_ called _me_." Bubba said.

            "Yeah, yeah, keep yer shirt on, trog. I'm getting' to it." The fairy said. "How good are you at kickin' da hell outta people?"

            "Fair to middlin'. Why?" Bubba asked.

            "You see, dis drek happened to me about three months ago. I was working at da same company my buddy here is now. Boarda directors, if ya really wanna know. Anyway, I came in ta work six inches shorter one day. The boss put a boot mark on my ass 'cause he thought I was turning inta something other than a white Anglo-Saxon male, if yous know what I mean. This guy here understood da predicament, 'cause he's got eight kids that span da UGE chart, including his eldest daughter, and if there was one thing I regret most about losing a meter and a half and growin' wings is the fact I have no chance at bangin' 'er anymore." The gentleman behind him cleared his throat loudly. The fairy turned around.

            "What? Jesus, man, she's hot! That's what elves do best, man!" He turned back to the group. "Anyway, that's not all I want. There's a memo floatin' around basically givin' me my walkin' papers. And, I'm sure you guys know, it's illegal to fire an employee due to race, nationality, color, creed or species." He counted off each part on his fingers. "I need this so's I can drop it off with da Star and da Government of Seattle. Do these things and you'll get twenty grand."

            "Do we have to bring any special equipment?" Bubba asked.

            "Only a pair of wire cutters and a fat, juicy steak. Or a fat, juicy cat. The security is made up angry Rottwielers and a few rent-a-cops. No sweat."

            "I've known some sweaty Rottwielers. Twenty grand is all you can offer?"

            "Look at this guy!" The fairy exclaimed. "I'm paying for a milk run, and you's think yous need more than twenty g's?"

            "Yes. What happens if something happens on this 'milk run'? What if we run out of ammunition?"

            "Yeah, right." The fairy sneered. "Twenty grand buys a lot of slugs."

            "Not enough."

            "Hell no." The fairy said. "Twenty grand. And not a dime 'til you beat up da outta da CEO."

            "Fair enough. Where are we going?"

            "Wagner and Wagner Law Offices." The fairy said. "The branch on Fourteenth and Olympia in Bellvue. And you got plenty to worry about. The Star cases that place every five minutes between eight in the morning to midnight. 'Bout every twenty minutes after that. But you can get in from da Matrix. That oughta make yer job a little easier."

            "Time limit?"

            "Da sooner, da better. You may even get a bonus."

            "Very well." Bubba stood up. As he did, the fairy extended his hand. Bubba paused.

            "What's da matter, trog? Ain'tcha never shook hands with someone smaller than you before?" Bubba reached over and very lightly grabbed the minute palm with the very edge of his.

            "Been a pleasure." Bubba said.

            "Same here. You can contact my buddy when yer done." Bubba let go and exited down the hallway, followed by everyone else in the same single file line. They all piled back into the car. Mystique plugged in and they drove back home.

            "Well that was certainly interesting." Nocturne said. "But wasn't he cute?" Emily smiled and nodded her head in agreement.

"Okay, now what?" Felix asked.

            "Now we allow the cowboys to case the joint while the rest of us get ready to go in later tonight." Bubba replied. "We'll probably be in around two in the morning. Maybe three. Up to it, Circumstance?"

            "Sure thing. Will I be in there with Chow?"

            "Yeah. I'd prefer two in there in case any wily IC decides to get too close." Bubba said. He chuckled slightly. "Plus, if anyone finds you, you could pretend to be a tour."

            "I remember doing that once." Chow Mein said, looking over his shoulder at Bubba.

            "I bet you have." Emily said. Felix looked at the clock on the car console. If it was five o'clock now, he could still get a full eight hours of sleep before he went to work tonight. He crossed his arms, closed his eyes and drifted to sleep against the door of the car.


	7. Chapter VII

Chapter Seven

"I swear, this time he's actually gone." Chow Mein said, coming down from Doc's loft.

            "Son of a bitch, man." Emily snapped, inserting bullets into a clip. "What happened? Does he suddenly have no use for money?"

            "Got me." Bubba said, sitting across from Emily at the dining room table. It was heaped with weapons and ammunition. "I guess Fletch will do for tonight. Besides, Sparky took off, too. Took Baby with him, so that means he's out clubbing and collecting cigarettes."

            "So seriously, 'Stance." Mystique said, looking over the end of the couch. "This Fletch guy gonna do okay?"

            "Yeah, I think so. He's a fairly competent magician. Nothin' like Doc's patented 'Hole Maker', but rather, uh, quiet magic."

            "Quiet magic? That shit gets people killed." Mystique said, turning back around.

            "No, it keeps us from getting caught." Bubba said. "You never had the fortune to work with Doc before he started smoking, did you?"

            "No. Why?"

            "He did some wiz stuff back then. Body count for an entire year could be counted on one hand. _That's_ the true definition of our occupation."

            "The true definition of our occupation is the power of a sawed-off Remington at yer hip!" Chow Mein shouted from the kitchen from over a pot of ramen noodles. "Am I gonna have time to eat this?" Bubba looked up at the clock in the kitchen.

            "Uh, nope. Two minute warning, fellas. Get it together." Chow Mein, Mystique, Bubba and Emily started loading guns and tucking them away in their clothes. Emily and Bubba only took a pair of guns each, while the brothers packed away enough weapons and clips of ammunition to open a gun shop.

            "Wake up Nocturne. I'll get Fletch." Emily said. Emily walked to the garage and to the car. She opened the door and shook Felix's shoulder slightly.

            "Hey, you awake?" She said softly. Felix inhaled sharply, looking around in surprise. Then he stretched and nodded his head.

            "Yeah." Felix yawned. "What time is it?"

            "Ten 'til two." Emily said. "Hey, scoot over." Felix slid over to the other end of the back seat as Emily got in. "So, you sure you wanna go along with us?"

            "Sure. Doesn't seem like anything big." Felix said. "Should be okay."

            "Well, it could get pretty intense. I just wanted to warn you. If you stick close to one of us, you'll be okay." Emily said. Felix smiled slightly.

            "You're showing an awful lot of concern. Something you're not telling me?" Felix cocked an eyebrow and smirked.

            "Oh, I can't take it anymore!" Emily exclaimed. She suddenly slid across the span of the back seat and jumped on top of Felix. "I'm desperately in love with you! I want you! Take me!" She moaned in ecstasy two inches from his face, grabbing his jacket. Felix's heart raced. His only thought was how his pants were getting uncomfortably tight.

            "Uh, um… I…" Felix gibbered. Emily let go and sat back down.

            "Don't believe anything anyone says." Emily said. "You'll survive much longer." Felix gibbered a little more.

            "Uh, okay." Felix said.

            "And don't get a hard-on for anyone who suddenly does that. You'll survive much longer."

            "I don't get that excited like that all the time." Felix said, straightening out his pants and jacket.

            "Oh, just over me?" Emily said. Felix started to turn red.

            "Uh, well…" Felix said, looking around, trying not to make eye contact. As he looked behind him, the sight of Bubba crossing his eyes and pressing his face up against the window startled him. Felix turned two shades of red deeper.

            "You ready?" Bubba asked, laughing.

            "Yeah. Let's go." Felix said, his cheeks burning. Everyone piled into the car and drove off into the street lamp lit night.

            "Okay, here's the plan." Bubba started. "Fletch and Nocturne will sit on a lower floor and keep watch. Mystique will sit one floor higher and blast anything that Fletch and Nocturne tell 'em to. I'll be with Circumstance and Chow Mein. They'll look for the memo, and, if he's even there at this ungodly hour, I'll beat the CEO around a little bit. If something goes down, everyone make to the top floor. They don't send helicopters out to Bellvue, so we can regroup on the roof. Questions?"

            "Can I get a burger?" Mystique asked, lying back with a cable in his eye.

            "No. Think about work." Bubba said. "Fletch, still have that pistol?"

            "Yeah."

            "Don't use it until I tell you to. You two are going to be playing look out, so I doubt you'll be the frontal assault also."

            "Fourteenth and Olympia coming up, you bitches." Mystique announced. He cut off the headlights and slowly approached the intersection. Everyone looked at the building.

            "Oh, no." Nocturne said. "There's some serious trouble."

            "Say what?" Bubba asked.

            "I count ten jazzed animals on the ground floor."

            "She-it!" Chow Mein and Mystique exclaimed in unison.

            "What?" Felix asked, confused.

            "Some sick individuals will perform procedures on these poor animals. Install wired reflexes and replace muscles with synthetic garbage." Mystique answered, still staring at the building. "Makes a very nasty, very dangerous, and very hard to kill animal."

            "They can do that?" Felix asked in disbelief.

            "They have been for a few years now. But since they're an awfully expensive luxury, not many are around to talk about." Bubba explained.

            "Sounds like they'll eat you alive." Felix said.

            "You don't know how correct that statement is." Bubba said. "These animals are trained to do as much damage as possible without killing. Keeps the company from facing any legal trouble, and keeps the individual alive for the company brass to talk to. _Then_ they kill the poor bastard."

            "But, at least they're not that smart. All them chemicals have dumbed them down a bit. Heard you could do invisibility, Fletch."

            "Yes."

            "Good. We have to go through the first floor to get to the rest of the floors. You cover us and we should be able to get in okay." Bubba said. Mystique drove into the underground parking garage and parked close to a flight of stairs. Everyone got out and hiked up to a metal door and a maglock.

            "Okay, Mysty. Get to work. Fletch, get us covered." Bubba said. Mystique bent down slightly, removed a small tool out of his backpack and started to break into the maglock. Felix closed his eyes and concentrated on covering the entire group.

            "Shit, I hate doing this when I can't see my hands." Mystique grumbled. Felix opened his eyes to see nothing but the wall.

            "Can you do it?" Felix asked.

            "Oh hell yeah.  Few more seconds." Mystique's voice answered. The casing of the maglock floated in midair and wires appeared to move around by themselves. A red wire touched a black wire and a sharp click came from the door. Someone pushed it open.

            "Okay, get to the elevator quickly." Bubba whispered. After Felix heard everyone leave the corridor, he stepped out. His first sight of the lobby was the dogs. In the dim light made them look almost normal, but the dull reflections of metal on random places along the dogs' bodies revealed their true nature. Most were asleep and lying on the floor, breathing in short, sharp pants. Two paced along the window in jerky, spastic motions. Felix tiptoed along, praying he wouldn't make any noise. The entire group reached the elevator without alerting the animals.

            "Okay, you guys slide in quickly." Bubba whispered. The doors of the elevator widened slowly. Felix pushed in over someone else and got inside. Bubba grunted trying to pull the doors apart.

            "We're in, dude. You do the same." Chow Mein whispered. With one final exertion, Bubba pushed the doors open far enough to squeeze in. When he got inside, the doors crept closed again.

            "Okay, Fletch. Drop it." Bubba said. Felix let go of his spell, turning everyone visible again. Bubba punched the third floor button. Almost immediately after he pushed it, low, angry growls came from outside. As the elevator kicked into motion, the dogs started to bark and run for the door. Suddenly, four dents popped into the elevator door, startling everyone inside. The elevator continued upwards while the dogs scratched at the outside walls.

            "Hard headed sons of bitches, ain't they?" Mystique said nervously. The elevator jerked to a stop and opened it's doors to a floor full of desks and cubicles.

            "Our stop, dear." Nocturne said as she floated out of the elevator car. Felix looked at Bubba momentarily then followed Nocturne out. The doors of the elevator closed and the car continued its ascent. Felix followed Nocturne as she floated idly past desks and cubicles. Eventually, she turned and went into a cubicle with a couch, a coffee table and a coffee maker.

            "Ah, perfect." Nocturne said. She floated to the coffee maker and started to fiddle with the controls. Felix walked to the couch and sat down.

            "So what do we do? Just listen for anyone coming up the stairs?" Felix asked. Nocturne looked over her shoulder with a strange face.

            "No." Nocturne said in a sarcastic tone. "We scan the building and the surrounding area astrally."

            "Oh. Sorry." Felix said. He crossed his hands and started tapping his heel. He suddenly felt as if someone was watching him. He quickly looked at Nocturne to see she was staring at him.

            "What's the matter?" Nocturne asked. "You okay?"

            "What are you doing?" Felix asked. He scratched his ear slightly.

            "I'm sure you looked me over before now, dear." Nocturne said. She turned back to the coffee maker.

            "I haven't." Felix replied.

            "Oh? Why not?"

            "Well, uh, promise you won't laugh?" Felix asked, leaning forward slightly.

            "Yes."

            "Uh, you see, I'm kind of, uh, afraid to scan astrally or project." Felix said. Nocturne turned around.

            "I see. That's very uncommon with magicians. Something must have happened to you to cause your fear of the astral realm." She turned around again and poured a cup of coffee. "How do you take yours?"

            "Uh, black, please." Felix said. "And yeah. Couple things, actually. Um, when I was fifteen, I figured out I was a magician, right? Well, my favorite pastime was scanning astral space. All the time. I would scan people, objects, just for fun. Well, I was at school, doing that, when I scanned over someone. He was a huge troll going to my class and instead of the usual dull glow of the average person, this guy was lit up like a candle." Nocturne brought Felix a cup of coffee and sat on the other end of the couch.

            "Thanks. Well, he knew I was doing it, and he got angry. I tried apologizing, tried telling him I didn't mean anything by it. But he didn't listen. He jumped on top of me and just beat me within an inch of my life. I came out of the experience with broken bones, bruised organs, and nearly lost my left eye. Spent four months in the hospital.  They said that the kid was sensitive about it because his father gave him a lot of shit for being a mage. Said magicians don't play football, or Urban Brawl. Said a troll shouldn't do such weak things."

            "I'm sorry." Nocturne said. Felix picked up the cup of coffee and took a sip.

            "Don't be. Funny thing is that I forgave him. He still wanted to kill me, but I understood."

            "I'm glad you have a strong sense of understanding. But you said there were two things that scared you about astral space."

            "Yeah. This time, I was at the UT in Seattle. Freshman year. By then, I was kinda getting over being scared of someone jumping me for scanning them over. I was in a basic astral class. Well, the entire class shifted to astral perception as an exercise. One of the students, however, decided to bring a fire elemental to class. Seeing all these magicians in the same room must have freaked it out, because it went berserk. Everyone dropped out of astral as soon as the elemental went nuts, but I was stuck projecting. I could not get back inside my body, for whatever reason. Kinda like a rabbit in the middle of the road when it sees headlights. Anyway, it jumped me and beat me just as bad as the troll did. It came into physical being and engulfed me for about thirty seconds. The teacher managed to get rid of it, but, once again, back in the hospital for another eight months. Good thing was the University paid for it all, even the eye." Felix leaned forward and opened his eyes wide. "See the shading? The left one is browner than my right one. They could never get it exactly right." 

            "It is. You lost your eye in that incident?"

            "Yes. The left one. And I thought my potential as a magician was shot. But I came through alright."

            "Good. So are you afraid of elementals, too?" Nocturne asked. Felix chuckled.

            "Actually, water elementals are my favorite." Felix said.

            "Fascinating. But you mustn't be afraid of astral space. Come, scan me over. Tell me what you see." Nocturne said.

            "Uh, alright." Felix said. He exhaled and slowly let his vision shift from the colorful view of the physical world to the dull, dim view of the astral world. Everything appeared as it did in the physical world in astral space, but instead of wallpaper patterns, colors and logos, all the inanimate objects were dark, solid and gray. In front of Felix, however, was Nocturne, shining brightly and contrasting highly with the couch she was sitting on. On her ear, something small and round glowed ever brighter.

            "You have a focus on your ear." Felix said. He shifted back to normal vision.

            "What kind? Can you gauge how powerful it is?" Nocturne asked. Her mouth did not show up on her astral aura.

            "That's gotta be a spell lock, and if you're using it for levitation, I don't think it's more than a two on the ACB scale. It's not _that bright."_

"Yes. A spell lock. That's how I get around. But we shouldn't be sitting here chatting all night. We have to keep the look out. Don't be afraid of being in astral space. If anything happens, I'll be here to help you. Now, try to relax and project into the astral realm."

* * * * * * *

            "Damn." Emily growled. "How paranoid can a guy get?" Bubba and Emily stood over Chow Mein as he hunched over a large office desk. He probed a maglock on the top center drawer with a wire. The maglock had dozens of wires coming from it, all attached to four different small displays.

            "Man, I would be too. But I'm stealing this drek when we're done. These locks ain't even on the market yet." Chow Mein said as he squinted at a display.

            "Tell me again why I can't just tear the desk apart?" Bubba sighed.

            "The maglock is connected to the dataport on the CPU, the CPU is built into the desk, and monofilament gold wire, spaced two millimeters apart, runs through the entire thing, which is _also_ connected to the CPU. You tear the desk up, we don't get paid." Chow Mein said. He tapped a display a few times, then looked at the other three.

            "Finally. Clock synchronization is fixed. Starting code entry procedure." Chow Mein said. He straightened out and stood up. The four displays showed the codes that were previously entered, followed by a flashing INCORRECT.

            "How long does this take?" Bubba asked.

            "Interesting you should ask. With Fragmaster version 8.0, the desk would decay around the maglock before it would yield. This is the brand new, fourteen and a half trillion megapulse encryption system." Chow Mein explained. "That would be around eighteen thousand years."

            "Jesus!" Bubba exclaimed. "Why are the hell are we even here then?"

            "Would you shut up and let me finish?" Chow Mein exclaimed. "Fragmaster was written by a guy who does nothing but screw around with security and encryption at some university somewhere. In his position, he knows what new wiz stuff is on the market before anyone knows about it. One of the perks of his position. So when he saw this hot new drek out, he updated Fragmaster to 8.1."

            "So how long will Fragmaster, version eight point one take?" Bubba asked.

            "Dunno. The professor that cooked all this stuff up guarantees results within an hour." Bubba turned to the window and looked out to the street below.

            "I hope that computer gets lucky." Bubba grumbled.      

            "Why are you so worried, Bubba?" Felix thought to himself. He was projecting into the astral realm, leaving his fleshy vehicle behind on the couch a few floors down. His shimmering astral body floated around to the other side of Bubba, studying his aura. It was a slightly yellowish green, the color an aura turns when the person is worried or distressed.

            Felix studied Bubba longer. His form was whole, un-violated by cyberware or replacements. He looked at Chow Mein and Emily's dull glows crouching next to the cold dark desk. Chow Mein's form was shredded by the amount of replacements and cyberware in his body. Only a few scraps of natural energy were seen in his mostly artificial body. Emily's astral form was fairly intact, much more free of cyberware than Chow Mein. A small spot on her hand and a few devices in her arm and shoulder, various pieces in her torso, and her entire head were dark. The small spot on her hand, Felix guessed, was for a smartgun link.

            "Her entire head must be packed with cyberware." Felix thought. "I wonder how much room the doctors left for her brain. Oh well, none of my concern." Felix floated next to Emily for a few seconds longer, staring at her featureless astral face. He sighed and dove through the floors back to the cubicle with the couch, the coffee maker and his body. He settled back into his meat frame and opened his eyes. He looked to the other side of the couch. Nocturne was still there, sitting with her eyes closed and looking out for intruders in the astral realm. Felix stood up and stretched. He wandered out of the cubicle, looking for something to do for a break away from lookout duty.

            Felix wandered up and down the rows of cubicles. Every deck was the same. Every computer and every terminal was the same. Every chair, every wastebasket, every bulletin board and every bulletin on the bulletin boards and every thumbtack holding them on were the same. Felix grew tired of this order very quickly. For the first time, he was thankful of his current occupation and it's variety. He continued up a row to an office door. It had no knob and a fairly standard maglock on the wall next to it, which he guessed to be a supervisor's office. Felix poked at the number pad randomly and turned to wander in another direction. He stopped in his tracks when he heard the door stealthily slide open. He laughed out loud and walked into the office.

            The office was entirely unlike the cubicles outside. Large floor to ceiling windows offered an unobstructed view of the streets below. Several ferns and small trees lined the walls and sat on top of tables, including a very purple version of a ficus on the corner of the desk. Shelves on the three windowless walls held assorted books and knick-knacks like the ones in Felix's room. He glanced over them as he idly walked by. The door slid back closed automatically when Felix moved out of its sensor range.

            The things on the shelves were mostly uninteresting. Every now and then Felix would pick one off the shelf and handle it, but put it back and continue with his casual browsing. He continued until he glanced across the top shelf, where he froze. He spied a violin. A very old, very expensive, very beautiful Stradivarius model violin. The violin's bow lay next to it, the horsehair detached from one end. Felix plucked them off the shelf with extreme care and sat cross-legged on the floor with them. He held the violin in both hands in total awe. He ran his thumbs across the S shaped holes on both sides of the instrument.

            "God, how long has it been?" Felix thought, hooking the end of the horsehair to the other end of the bow. He twisted the screw on the end until the hair pulled tight. "Northwestern Honor Symphony was my sophomore year, so… fifty three? Yeah." He tucked the violin under his chin and sighed slightly when he rested the bow on the strings of the instrument. Felix counted to four in his mind and pulled the bow across the strings. In perfect unison, all four strings snapped and the horsehair split. The body of the instrument, which was only being supported by the strings, fell off of the neck and shattered into rotten splinters on the floor.

            "Ah, just like I remember." Felix sighed. He tossed the broken bow to the side and ran his fingers through the scattered splinters. He picked a large sliver of wood out of the pile and turned it over in his hands. "Maybe I should go back to work." He stood up and went to the door. It slid open as Felix walked within sensor range, and closed when he exited. When the door closed, Nocturne floated around the corner.

            "There you are." Nocturne said. "We have a visitor."

            "We do?" Felix said, trotting up to Nocturne. He placed the sliver of wood in his pocket before Nocturne took his hand and floated for the elevator. "Who is it?"

            "I don't know. It's only one person, so I don't think he'll find us. I need to tell Mystique, though." Nocturne explained. She tugged Felix into the elevator and poked the eighth floor button. "Go look. He should be coming up to the front entrance by now." Felix sat down and closed his eyes, projecting into the astral realm. He zipped passed the floors to the front entrance looked around. A human sized figure walked for the entrance. When it got to the door, it stopped and turned around. After a few seconds, Felix saw four other figures advance, much larger and much dimmer than the first figure, and approach the entrance. Each of the large figures held something very large. The best that Felix could guess was that they were guns. Felix shot up back through the floors and dove back into his body. He opened his eyes to see Mystique and Nocturne standing next to him in the elevator.

            "There's five people at the entrance. Four are very big and they're carrying what looks like guns." Felix explained as calmly as possible. His heart raced.

            "Bloody hell." Mystique cursed. He put a finger to his throat. "Brother. How much longer?" He was silent for a moment, then cursed again. "You're serious? Fuck. We have four people who'd like to impede your progress. We'll be up momentarily." Mystique pushed the button for the top floor.

            "How'd they know we're here?" Felix asked as he stood up.

            "Number of ways. They probably know someone is trying to break into the maglock upstairs." Mystique replied. He reached behind his back and brought out a pair of submachine guns in one hand. Felix took this as a cue and took the pistol out of his pocket.

            "Hey, the bathroom gun." Mystique said. Felix smiled. The elevator chimed and opened it's doors to the top floor. Felix, Mystique and Nocturne ran to the office the other three were in.

            "What's this I hear about people coming?" Bubba growled.

            "No kidding. There are five guys coming up to have a word with us." Felix said. He poked his head out to the hallway. The doors of the elevator closed and the display above started counting backwards. "And they're coming up now." Bubba reached into his jacket and pulled out a gigantic revolver. He walked to the door, past Felix, and lowered the gun to the elevator door.

            "Cover your ears." Bubba warned. He pulled the hammer back and pulled the trigger. The blast shook the walls. The elevator doors shattered and fell down the shaft. The edge of the elevator's doorframe caught fire from the extreme velocity of the bullet breaking through the doors.

            "We now have two minutes until Lone Star gets here. If the lock is not broken in ninety seconds, we leave without the memo." Bubba barked as he walked back into the room.

            "I think the shot scared it, Bubba." Emily said. "The lock let up as soon as you pulled the trigger."

            "Good, get in there. You have eighty seconds." Bubba said, pointing at the desk with the gun.

            "And away we go." Emily muttered. She stuck one end of a wire in her temple and opened the desk drawer. She plugged the other end into a similar looking hole next to the integrated keyboard. She sat down cross-legged and punched the CONNECT button.

            "Whoa." Emily whispered.

            "Seventy seconds, Circumstance." Bubba said, looking out the window. "What do you mean 'whoa'?

            "There are no countermeasures. Every little megapulse of data is scattered around, not even so much as a folder holding any of it. I could pull all of this in a few seconds." Chow Mein lifted the lid of the CD player and inserted a small red CD.

            "Get to it then." Chow Mein said. He closed the CD player.

            "Nine seconds 'til everything's over." Emily announced. Felix looked around the corner of the door again. He saw a hand holding on to the bottom edge of the elevator door. Another hand tossed a large rifle out onto the floor of the hallway.

            "They're here! They climbed right up the shaft and now they're here!" Felix exclaimed. Bubba came to the door and peeked around. Three men, dressed in obviously armored security uniforms were in the hallway, helping a fourth up out of the shaft. Four large rifles leaned against the wall. Bubba lowered his gun to shoot the rifles. Suddenly, each guard turned and fired with pistols. Bubba ducked back into the room.

            "Dammit!" Bubba growled. "Now we've got _wired_ security after us. Get that stuff now, girl!" Emily yanked the cord out of the desk drawer.

            "Done!" Emily exclaimed. Chow Mein popped the top of the CD player and reached to extract the CD. A guard jumped into the doorway and fired one shot. The bullet passed through the lid of the CD player, Chow Mein's head and shattered the window. Chow Mein dropped, grabbing for his head, rapidly slipping away. Bubba slammed the guard in the head with his revolver. The guard's head twisted enough to break his neck. Emily plucked the CD out of the player. 

            "Brother!" Mystique screamed. He dove toward Chow Mein, but Bubba grabbed him before he could touch him. He struggled, but Bubba held him tightly.

            "No! Save yourself!" Bubba snapped and hoisted him under his arm. Mystique stopped and fell limp. Bubba lowered his gun at the desk and fired. The desk exploded into chunks of burning wood and plastic computer parts.

            "Here we go! Get on!" Bubba yelled. He tucked the gun into his pants and ran to the window, grimacing slightly because he did not allow the gun to cool down before he tucked it away.

            "Where?" Emily asked. Bubba only pointed out the freshly shattered window. He grabbed Emily. Felix ran up, jumped and wrapped his arms around the troll's neck.

            "Somehow, I knew this would happen." Felix muttered, burying his head into Bubba's leather jacket.

            "Go!" Nocturne commanded. Bubba jumped out the window holding Felix, Emily and Mystique and started to close the distance between him and the ground. Halfway down, an updraft slowed their descent dramatically. Ten feet away from hitting the ground, a Lone Star car turned the corner and drove directly under them. Bubba, Felix, Emily and Mystique crashed onto the car, pushing the entire roof into the cabin of the car. The siren dropped in pitch and died. Bubba paused to readjust the weight and ran for the car.

            "Everyone alright?" Bubba asked loudly. "You still with us, Nocturne?"

            "I'm here!" Nocturne shouted behind Bubba. Felix turned to see Nocturne straddling a shimmering figure flying behind him five feet in the air. En route to the garage, Bubba ran past an alley. A pair of Lone Star officers ran down it, guns parallel to the ground and pointed straight at them. Felix held onto Bubba's neck with his left arm and grabbed the pistol out of his pocket. The officers began to fire at them, spraying rounds in every direction. Felix aimed at the ground just in front of the pursuing officers and opened fire. Bullets ricocheted off the ground and struck one man in the shin. He fell to the ground, but continued to fire at them on his stomach. The other officer stopped and dropped to aid the wounded officer. He shouted into a radio on his shoulder. Bubba turned the corner and ran down the ramp to the parking garage.

            "Circumstance, call our employer and tell him we need to get rid of this now. We're being followed. Fletch, Nocturne, in the back." Bubba said, running for the car. When he got there, Felix jumped off and opened the door. Bubba tossed Emily and Mystique in passenger seat and got into the driver's side, ruining every automatic adjustment control for the seat. Felix and Nocturne went around and got into the back seat. Bubba reached under the steering column and ripped out a fistful of cords, disabling rigger input and switching the control back to manual operation. He slammed the gear into reverse and floored it. Halfway out of the garage, a Lone Star patrol car screeched to a halt in front of the exit to block Bubba. Bubba applied more gas and broadsided the patrol car in reverse. The patrol car bounced off the heavy Ford Bison and careened through the glass of the building opposite the garage.

            "How am I supposed to make a call with all this racket?" Emily asked, sitting back up. She opened a panel on the dashboard and dialed a number.

            "Sorry, dear." Bubba said and tossed the gear back into drive. He fishtaled a few times before he took off down the street. A pair of screaming Lone Star patrol cars and three unmarked cars began to follow them.

            "Got him on the dash monitor." Emily said. A small monitor flashed white, then the image of the fairy appeared.

            "What in da hell are you waking me up for?" The fairy snapped. He was only wearing a pair of boxers. He was extremely well built.

            "Whoa. For a fairy, I'd say you were damn sexy." Emily said.

            "Oh, you's like dis?" The fairy said. He flexed a couple times.

            "Enough. We have your information, and we are being tailed by wired security."

            "No shit." The fairy said. "Fair enough. Get on the interstate. I'll make the exchange there."

            "On the interstate?"

            "Sure! Ain'tcha never tossed junk outta cars before? Just look for a limo. Ja beat da crap outta da CEO for me?"

            "Never saw him. Did you really expect him to be there at two o'clock in the morning?" Bubba said. He took a left turn at sixty miles an hour on two wheels. The patrol cars had no hope of making the turn and continued straight, but the three unmarked cars made the turn flawlessly.

            "Aw, geez, then how am I gonna justify paying you twenty grand?"

            "Hold on, I think we have something in here you like…" Emily said and slid the small red CD into a slot next to the monitor.

            "Yeah? What?" The fairy growled. The fairy's image was replaced by a man in a suit, holding a bag of small, blue, octagonal shaped pills in the office they were previously in. He gave the camera the finger.

            "Ha, ha, you bureaucrats. I got two words for you. 'Not guilty'! Ha!" The man exclaimed. Some laughing came from off camera. He reached into the bag, pulled out a fistful of pills and dropped them into his mouth. Emily pushed the eject button. The image of the fairy came back on, stunned.

            "I will give you sixty thousand nuyen for that CD." The fairy said, totally void of any accent.

            "See you on the interstate." Bubba said. He made a right turn for the onramp. As he hit the ramp, the back end bounced off of the street and broke the back window, scattering tiny nuggets of glass all over the interior of the car and on the freeway. The three unmarked cars still followed in pursuit.

            "Nocturne, Fletch. Get rid of those cars." Bubba barked over his shoulder. He swerved around a car and straightened out. The unmarked cars approached closer. Nocturne and Felix turned around and looked out the shattered window. One car's front end began to dent and the headlights shattered. After a few moments, smoke billowed out of the grill. The car dropped back.

            "Nice. May I?" Felix asked Nocturne. She nodded once. Felix held out his fists and tossed a fireball out of the car. It slammed into the front of one car and exploded the engine. The hood of the car blasted straight up over a column of fire and smoke.

            "That was pretty cool, Fletch." Bubba said. "I could see that in the mirror." The last car accelerated and steadily approached the car. Felix and Nocturne started to cast a double dose of magic on the car, but instead, both of the dropped and fell over each other on the back seat.

            "Fletch? Nocturne?" Emily asked. She looked over. They were both out cold.

            "Aw, great. They have magicians." Emily groaned. Bubba looked over his shoulder at the two.

            "Christ." Bubba exclaimed. He swerved around a semi and a motor home, skidding and nearly spinning out. The car behind them perfectly avoided the two other vehicles and approached closer still. Bubba took the large caliber gun out of his pants and turned to point it at the car. The car lunged forward with a growl of the engine and bumped the car. Bubba jerked his hand upward and pulled the trigger, blowing a hole two feet in diameter in the roof. He straightened and pointed the gun at the car. He fired into the engine. The hood ripped off, flipping in the air and it dropped far behind them. He fired again, but missed and hit the windshield. The glass was not even so much as scuffed.

            "I can't fraggin' believe it!" Bubba shouted. "What stops the mortal fury of the handgun of doom?" They zoomed passed an onramp where a limousine raced up and ran parallel to Bubba's car. Emily and the passenger of the limo lowered their windows.

            "I hear you have something you want to sell!" The passenger shouted.

            "Get closer!" Emily screamed. The limousine crept close enough for each party to touch. The passenger of the limousine held two credsticks out. Emily snatched them and looked at the amount on each. They read thirty five thousand a piece.

            "A bonus for a speedy job." The man shouted. "Now, the item?" Emily took the CD out of the slot and reached out the car to hand him the CD. Suddenly, she smelled burning hair. She looked behind the cars to see a person hanging out the passenger side window with a rifle.

            "A little help?" Emily asked.

            "Absolutely. Thank you, miss." The passenger said. Emily ducked back into the car. The limousine faded back slightly. From the window, the passenger tossed a small object onto the exposed engine, and the limo slammed on the brakes. The entire front end exploded. The other half of the car flipped over onto it's top and exploded again, sending traffic in every direction around it. Bubba raced forward without looking back.

            "Did it go well?" Bubba asked. He slowed to a respectable rate of speed and exited the freeway.

            "As well as we could have hoped. We got ten grand as a bonus."

            "Excellent. We'll go drinking. We need to get drunk after a job like this." Bubba replied. He drove for a minute longer then drove into an alley and parked.

            "Should we take Nocturne and Fletch inside?" Emily asked.

            "Yeah, I suppose. Mystique, grab Nocturne please?" Bubba asked. He got no response.

            "Mystique?" Bubba asked again. Mystique sat there, staring at the floor unblinking.

            "Let him stay here." Emily whispered to Bubba. "He lost his brother tonight. He doesn't need to drink." Bubba nodded. He opened the back door and put Nocturne and Fletch under each arm. Emily climbed across the bench of the front seat to Mystique. She stroked his face gently with the back of her fingers.

            "Mysty? We'll be inside if you need anything, okay?" Emily said softly. Mystique sat there unmoving. Emily came back outside.

            "Hope he's okay." Emily said. Bubba and Emily went to the back door of a building and entered. They took the closest booth they could find. Bubba dumped Felix and Nocturne on the seat and slid them toward the middle. Emily and Bubba flanked them.

            The club they were in was fairly quiet and very dark. There was no DJ or light show running at the time and a random selection of techno music played quietly in the background. A waitress in a brown and white uniform approached the table.

            "Hi. What can I get you?" The waitress asked, pulling a pencil out of her bun. Emily leaned forward and squinted.

            "Tina?" Emily asked. "That you?"

            "Hey, girlfriend!" The waitress exclaimed. "What the hell you doing here?"

            "Not much. Back from a job. What about you? Workin' lately?"

            "Naw. I'm tired of all that BS. I'd rather get up at the crack of dusk four days a week. At least I don't get shot at."

            "Can you sit down? Talk for a while."

            "No. I'm covering for another girl that's sick. Can I bring you a round?"

            "Yeah, and could you bring a few shots of the nastiest vodka you have?" Bubba asked. The waitress smiled.

            "That's the only kind we got. Be back in a second." The waitress turned back for the bar. Emily pulled her hair around to examine it. She picked at the ends for a few seconds and found the hair the bullet sheered off. It looked as if it was burned with a lighter.

"Aw man." Emily whined. "I can't wash this out."

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure you can cut it out." Bubba said. "Hell, shave it bald. I've always liked bald women." Nocturne, with her head on the table, started to cough.

            "Holy *cough* geez." Nocturne moaned. "Where are we?"

            "Bar out past Bellvue. Need something to drink?" Bubba asked.

            "Yes!" Nocturne exclaimed with her eyes crunched shut to keep out any light. "Copious amounts of alcohol! Must replace magical headache with mundane headache. Now!" She sat up and looked at Felix, still passed out over the table.

            "Ugh. Did we get paid?" Nocturne asked. She tilted her head back and rubbed her temples.

            "Oh yeah." Emily said. "A full seventy grand." The waitress came back with four bottles of beer and four shots of clear liquid. She placed each in the middle of the table, oblivious to Felix.

            "'K. Here you go. I'll come back later and see if you need a refill, or a basket of wings or something." The waitress said. Bubba took a shot and sniffed at it. He cringed and shuttered.

            "That'll work." Bubba said. He slid the shot next to Felix's face, dipped his pinky in it and rubbed vodka on Felix's upper lip. Nothing happened for a moment. Then Felix licked his lip and smiled.

            "That's nasty vodka." Felix said, still draped over the table with his eyes closed. "Is there more?" He opened his eyes and sat up. He looked at Nocturne, who had a beer bottle tilted vertically into her head. Felix took a bottle and swallowed a few gulps of beer.

            "Ah. Better. What happened?" Felix asked, running his finger along the edge of the shot glass. He raised it and sipped.

            "As far as we can figure, you and Nocturne either got sleepy really fast, or there were magicians in the car." Bubba said. He tilted a shot straight back and slammed the glass into the table. Felix looked down at the bottle he held in both hands.

            "Chow didn't get out, did he?" Felix asked, looking at the table. He got no response. "Could have happened to any one of us, couldn't it have?"

            "That's why we don't take too long mourning for our fallen comrades." Bubba said. He took another shot of vodka, emptied it and set it on the table. "Just a night of drinking and we get back to work."

            "How many others have been killed working with you?" Felix asked.

            "Fletch!" Emily scolded. "It wasn't anyone's fault!"

            "I didn't say it was. How many, Bubba?" Felix asked. He looked up at Bubba. Bubba looked at the table and sighed.

            "In all the time I've worked? Twelve people have died working with me." Bubba grabbed a third shot and drank it. "But all of those people died because some other punk got lucky, or they were stupid, or some other circumstance like that. It happens. I'm sure we'd have a lot more dead co-workers if we were working for the police."

            "So what was Chow Mein like? I knew him for all of about ten minutes." Felix asked.

            "Dunno. He and his brother watched the trid every time I saw them." Nocturne replied. "I can't say." Felix took his bottle and held it in the air.

            "Here's to Chow Mein. He died doing the job he liked." Felix said. Nocturne, Emily and Bubba held a bottle up for the toast and took a drink. Bubba reached back into his back pocket and removed his wallet. From there, he extracted a folded up, yellowed piece of paper. He unfolded it and handed it to Felix. 

"Go ahead." Bubba said, grimly. Felix looked it over.

It read: _We, the undersigned, do not hold the undersigned responsible any personal injuries or death (mental, physical, spiritual or otherwise) of the undersigned, and, in the event of a death of one of the undersigned, expect the undersigned to go on with their lives without any remorse, personal responsibility, regret or guilt for the undersigned. _

A list of seventeen names followed underneath the paragraph, most of them crossed out with a dark pen. Only the names of Circumstance, Nocturne, Sparky, Bubba, Doc, Mystique and his slain brother remained. Bubba reached into the jacket and removed a black ballpoint pen. He took the brittle note back from Felix, set it down on the table, and ran one, single line through Chow Mein's name. He pushed each over to Felix. Felix looked back at Bubba.

"I can't sign this." Felix said.

"You have to, Fletch." Sparky answered. "We don't want you taking the blame." 

"I won't." Felix pushed it back at Bubba. "I'm not a…"

"Then sign it so we don't take the blame for you." Emily said, looking up at him. She looked the most serious she had ever looked to him. Felix nearly jumped at the gravity of her look at him. He took the piece of paper back and signed it "Fletch" quickly.

"No court would dare recognize this." Felix said.

"It's not for legal purposes." Bubba said. He carefully folded the paper back along the original folds and put it back into the wallet. The waitress returned with a basket of chips and a bowl of salsa and collected empty glasses and bottles.

"Another round please." Nocturne said. "And keep checking back until we've all passed out."

* * * * * * *

"Seriously?" Felix asked in a slurred voice. "You really took out a helicopter? With what?"

            "A motorcycle." Bubba said. He laughed and took a drink from one of the several bottles on the table. He held his index finger and thumb closely together in front of his eye. "Just a little one though."

            "Fletch, we have to *burp* come up with a better name for you, dear." Emily exclaimed, tapping on his shoulder. He turned around.

            "Oh yeah? What?"

            "I dunno. It's just that, you know, you don't really act like Felch."

            "Fletch."

            "Yeah, that's what I said."

            "Okay, well, how about…" Felix looked to the ceiling. "You know you're Bond movies?"

            "Kinda, yeah. Why? You gonna be Odd Job or something?"

            "More like Hand Job." Bubba laughed.

            "No. What about Tomorrow?" Felix said.

            "Wasn't that yer dad's name?" Emily recalled.

            "I doubt it now. But what about Tomorrow?"

            "Why 'Tomorrow'?" Emily asked.

            "'Cause Tomorrow never dies." Felix said smiling.

            "Yeah, but Tomorrow never comes, either."

            "Is that a joke about my punctuality?" Felix asked.

            "Sexual prowess, actually." Nocturne interrupted. Bubba roared with laugher. Felix blushed brightly. 

            "Oh, geez. My back teeth are floatin'." Bubba said, sliding out of the booth. "Be out back." Bubba staggered for the back door. He went outside and leaned against the car, squinting at the sun peeking it's face over the edge of the building's roof. He unbuckled his belt and looked into the car. He fastened the buckle again and went to the passenger side. Bubba shook his head, reached in through the shattered glass and pulled a pistol out of Mystique's mouth. His hand fell limply into his lap.

            This presented a new problem to for Bubba. The car was already looking pretty poor. He wasn't sure he would be able to get it fixed as discreetly as he wanted, and was considering just selling it for a quick thousand or so to a rigger friend. However, disposing of a body, one that was a heavily loaded as Chow Mien and not registered in any database in Seattle produced several new problems. He could have easily called a few vat farms and second hand dealers to dice his poor friend up for resale, but Bubba wouldn't have it.

            Bubba got on his stomach and felt around for a long tube he had planted there several months prior. Once he found it, he felt for a ring and pulled it. Whirring began to start. Bubba jumped to his feet, paused to put his hand on Mystique's shoulder to wish him well and hastily re-entered the bar.

            "We need to go. Now." Bubba said. He pushed the payment button on the table panel and slid one of the two credsticks into the payment socket.

            "Why?" Felix asked, slurred as ever. "We haven't begun to drink!"

            "Now." Bubba said. His tone sobered everyone at the table.

            "Okay. What's the matter?" Felix asked. They all slid out of the booth and exited through the back door. The car was already half-way melted when they came outside. The steel and plastic formed a puddle of bubbling goo on the pavement and the rest of the structure was sinking fast. Mystique's body was severely and grotesquely degraded from the chemical reaction caused by the compound contained in the cylinder Bubba activated seconds earlier. Everyone turned their heads away. They couldn't bear to see him like that. After two more minutes, the entire car, Mystique and any other material will have been broken down and turned into a flat, shiny, brittle plate of iron and carbon. 

            "Mysty?" Nocturne asked, floating close to Bubba. Bubba nodded. He thrust his hands into his jacket pockets.

            "We'd better get home before you get caught in the sun." Bubba sighed. They turned for the street, and Bubba hailed a SUV converted into a taxi. They piled in and drove home.


	8. Chapter VIII

Chapter Eight

            Felix's pocket secretary had an orgasm across the glass-topped nightstand.  He looked out from under the thick comforter in time to see it scoot across and fall onto the floor. Felix sighed and sat up. When they arrived home, he took up residence in the twin's bedroom. The twins, like Felix, were good at keeping things in order, so he had no problem with falling asleep in one of their beds. Felix bent over and picked the secretary off the floor. He flipped the top open and pushed the RECEIVE button.

            "Guten tag, Herr Page." The German greeted. He paused a moment, seeing Felix in bed with nothing on but a bandage around his chest. "Did I catch you at a bad time?"

            "Not at all. What time is it?" Felix asked.

            "Twelve eighteen." The German replied.

            "I see. What can I do for you?"

            "Actually, it is nothing major. A curiosity, actually. The Government of Seattle has sent me your death certificate. Would you like it?" He asked. Felix laughed.

            "I'm dead?" He exclaimed.

            "It would seem so."

            "Oh, yeah I want it. I'll have it framed. Put it over the john where I'll see it everyday." Felix said.

"Toilet humor?" The German asked. Felix smiled.

"Perhaps. Say, how long will you be there?"

            "Until six o'clock this evening."

            "Very good. See you later." Felix said. He closed the secretary, jumped out of bed, put his suit pants on and went into the living room. He saw Nocturne, in the same dress she was in the night prior, lying on the couch with her hand over her eyes.

            "Nocturne? You okay?" Felix asked.

            "Shhh." She hissed. "Don't make any noise. Hangover."

            "Oh yeah?" Felix asked. He went to the end of the couch her head was at and knelt down. Nocturne nodded.

            "Wanna see how I made pocket money my freshman year?" Felix whispered.

            "Not so loud!" Nocturne whined. Felix put his hands on Nocturne's ears.

            "Now relax." Felix said. He closed his eyes, and counted backwards from three. Right after Felix counted one, Nocturne sat straight up, gripping her head screaming. After two seconds, she quieted, and let go of her head. She looked at Felix. "Incredible." She said. "What did you do?"

            "Basically? I just took your headache and compacted it into one quick flash. Everyone says it's the worst pain they've ever felt, but paid me ten nuyen a shot to avoid suffering for the rest of the afternoon." Nocturne opened her mouth and moved her jaw in circles a couple of times. She dug into a pocket in her dress and withdrew a twenty nuyen note.

            "Credit for the next one." Nocturne said. Felix held up his hand.

            "No, no. It's on the house." Nocturne tossed the note on the table.

            "Someone will use it." She floated off the couch and into the kitchen. "So do you have any plans today?"

            "Yeah. I'm going to pick up my death certificate."

            "Excuse me?"

            "Yeah. Seattle thinks I'm dead."

            "I should be so lucky."

            "To be dead?"

            "Just have people think I am." Nocturne said. She collected items from the refrigerator and dropped them on the counter. "Care for something to eat?"

            "After while." Felix said. He went back into his room, put his suit back on, straightened his tie, picked up his secretary and stepped into the bathroom. As he was busy undoing his pants, he noticed that, despite the odd suggestion he had made a minute earlier, someone actually _did_ hang something over the toilet. A newspaper clipping, arranged professionally in a simple black frame. Felix leaned in closer to read it as he relieved himself.

            "Vice Chairman of University Found Dead, Headless."

"This is the address?" Sparky asked behind him in the dark shadows of the van.

            "Oh yes." Morris growled back. The light from the lamppost only caught his most prominent features: his eyes, his new tusks and his new horns. Sparky watched the large mansion from down the street a few minutes more. Soon, the gate opened and a sleek black car pulled out slowly and drove away from them. The gate closed automatically. Sparky started his and began to trail the car. They followed the car through the night until it cruised through a sparsely populated area between cities.

            "Now." Sparky said. Morris mashed his large thumb on a remote control. A tiny vial of corrosive compound, responding to the signal commanded by the remote control a quarter of a mile back broke open, dripping liquid on the tire. The liquid swiftly ate through the tire. The tire blew out, despite the safety measure built inside the tire. Since the safety measure was also made of vulcanized rubber, it also succumbed to the liquid. The car skidded to the right for a second, then straightened and finally screeched to a halt. Sparky pulled up behind it slowly as a man got out of the car. Sparky got out. He could hear the man cursing as he walked up to him.

            "Hey! You need some help?" Sparky called. The man didn't seem to notice him.

            "Fucking Christ! These goddamned DualTires aren't worth a buggered buck! Why in the hell did it blow?" He screamed at the empty night sky. He bent down to investigate the tire. Sparky still approached, and when Sparky was almost on top of him, he stood up again, nearly busting Sparky in the mouth. Both were startled.

            "Jesus, kid. Who are you?" The man asked, holding his chest.

            "Oh my God, are you that guy Montgomery on the trid?" Sparky asked, amazed. Montgomery straightened and adjusted his tie.

            "Yes." Montgomery answered with a slight arrogance.

            "Wow! I can't believe it! Here I am, just stopping to help a guy out, and I meet _the_ Vice Chairman Montgomery!" Sparky exclaimed. Montgomery beamed.

            "You're stopping to help me out?" Montgomery asked. "That is very generous of you. I only thought rampaging mutants and genetic nightmares rode through here at this time of night." Sparky waved his hand at him.

            "Naw. Just a good, ol' fashioned human being, helping another of his kind out." Sparky said. "How about you leave this thing here, and we'll drive up the road and I can drop you off at the University. You should be able to contact a tow." Montgomery accepted his offer of a ride back to the University with a smile. They walked to the van, Montgomery and Sparky got in and started down the road. Suddenly, a massive hand covered Montgomery's head and one held him down over his chest. As predicted, he attempted to scream and escape, but Morris' new found strength made sure neither would happen.

            "Good evening, Vice Chairman." Morris whispered into his ear. "I wanted to express my concern with the speech you gave over the trid this afternoon." The Chairman stopped wiggling and looked with terror filled eyes at the large, long toothed face of Morris. "You see, I don't think the metahuman community will respond favorably, as it makes you out to be biased against them."

            "Now, now, Professor Pribnow!" Sparky exclaimed. "I'm sure the Chairman was only concerned for the well-being of his students!" Montgomery attempted to exclaim his disbelief that this troll was in fact the former professor of English.

            "You're probably right. I mean, who am I, Dr. Morris Pribnow, to judge a man as distinguished, as sophisticated, as renowned as Jonathan Montgomery." Morris released his hands from the Chairman slowly. He panted, sweating in fear. He said nothing for a few moments, but then swallowed and took a deep breath.

            "So… Dr. Pribnow…" Montgomery started.

            "Dr. Pribnow?" Sparky exclaimed in surprised. "Who's that?" Morris leaned in on Montgomery, grinning evilly. "That's Bubba." The troll grabbed the chairman again and pulled him into the back of the van.

            "Every one of them dumb jokes you've ever heard about a guy named Bubba in prison, well, your friend is going to show you why they were concocted in the first place!" The van cruised down the interstate, rocking wildly every so often.

            The van eventually crawled up to a large building deep in the belly of Seattle. The entire front and both sides were lined by huge motorcycles, made and modified for much larger riders than humans. The front was adorned by a gigantic neon sign, blinking "Big Rhino". The van stopped in the street right in front of the door. The bouncer standing in front took notice and stepped closer. Sparky jumped out and slid the side door open. Bubba stretched his legs from his cross-legged position, sat up, reached back into the van and withdrew a very large gym bag.

            "No stopping on the street. Move yer car, nibblet." The bouncer, a troll with mountains of muscle under a tank top, bellowed at Sparky. He turned to Bubba. "And you gotta be the prettiest looking elf I've ever seen. We're closed." Behind the bouncer, a couple more trolls and orcs came out, hoping this would escalate into a brawl. Bubba stepped closer and actually revealed himself to be at least half a foot taller than the bouncer. He kept his gaze locked, but his face calm.

            "I was under the impression that this is where a man like me could get a decent meal." Bubba replied. The bouncer laughed.

            "You gotta sweeter voice than my mum!" The bouncer exclaimed. "I betcha beg for mercy real pretty." The small crowd behind him laughed. "Whatcha got in the purse, beautiful?" Bubba surprised everyone by tossing it over to the crowd. One stout orc caught it. He unzipped in and pulled the chairman out by the back of his suit. He was bound and gagged by duct tape.

            The crowd fell silent. The bouncer's mouth dropped slightly. He returned his gaze to Bubba's still, calm face.

            "That who we think it is?" The bouncer asked. Bubba nodded. "We were watching the trid when that happened. I, uh, I said that if I saw that guy who expressed in that school, and if I saw the guy who didn't do anything when it happened, I'd tell 'em."

            "Tell them what, exactly? Bubba asked.

            "I dunno what I was gonna tell the old guy, but I knew I wanted to tell the new guy that I wanted to buy him a drink." The bouncer said, smiling. "I figure anyone who tears apart a gang after being a mutant for five minutes deserves a little respect." He patted him on the shoulder and laughed. "I think the guys back there will tell the Chairman what they think." The crowd laughed loudly and carried the Chairman into the bar, eyes wider than ever.

            "Catch you later, Bubba." Sparky said. He jumped into the van, waved at the bouncer and sped off.

            "You know that kid?" Bubba asked.

            "Aw, hell yeah. Work with him on a few occasions. Best damn rigger I ever knew." Bubba started to ask exactly what a rigger was, but decided to save it. The bouncer took him inside to introduce him to the rest of his "kind".

            Bubba opened his eyes and smiled. He looked directly above to the pale blue sky, contemplating his position in the world. He was lying on the roof of the decrepit building he lived in, soaking up the precious little sun he had a chance to. His profession didn't allow him to operate during banker's hours. He inhaled deeply.

            "How is it that my happiness, my position, my _everything_, grew when I did?" Bubba asked himself. His phone rang softly next to him. He sighed, picked it up and placed it to his head.

            "Ah, Herr Page. Come in." The German greeted as he waved Felix in. The German took a manila envelope out of his top drawer and handed it to Felix. Felix opened it and looked at the document inside.

            "Yep. Authentic death certificate." Felix said. He rubbed his chest under his tie, remembering why the coroner's office issued him one in the first place. His secretary vibrated in his pocket. Felix dropped the certificate on the deck and pulled the secretary out of his pocket.

            "Excuse me a second." Felix said. "Hello?" Bubba appeared.

            "Where are you, Fletch?" Bubba asked.

            "Commercial district. Why?"

            "One of our talismongers called. We have an orc selling a spell lock and a power focus of the likes he's never seen before."

            "It's that powerful?" Felix asked.

            "No, that ugly."

"Eh?" Felix answered in confusion. "Sir, what did the two foci look like?"

"Oh, um, I believe one was a gold medallion with 'Born to Disco' inscribed." The German recalled "The second was a large belt buckle with 'Cowboy Up' inscribed." Felix's eyebrows tilted in dismay.

"These were magical focuses?"

"Unfortunately, our contract talismonger had an odd sense of humor and a taste for twentieth century jewelry."

"Do you know where the Mexican food place is out there?" Bubba interrupted.

            "No."

            "I do." The German said. "Just two blocks North. You can walk there easily."

            "Yes, I'll meet you there in ten minutes. Hurry." Bubba said. He closed his secretary, causing Felix's monitor to flicker to blue. Felix snapped his shut and rammed it down his pocket.

            "I'll pick this up later. Goodbye!" Felix said and walked briskly for the office's exit. When he hit the street, he ran. His skin tingled with hate, with his memories of the orc and of his family. Felix dodged people and obstacles, picking up speed until he reached the small crowded restaurant on the corner. His face burned with remembered anger, which was multiplied by the cutting heat of the summer sun. He wiped his brow and straightened his tie. He wiped his hand on his pant leg, over the bulge that was the small pistol resting at the bottom of his pocket. Images of him firing it flashed through Felix's mind. He ran over them over and over until Bubba climbed out of a cab in front of the corner shop.

            "Felix!" Bubba shouted. Felix snapped out of his trance to see Bubba. He walked up to him and the two proceeded away from the ten-lane street that carved through the business district and for the smaller shops deeper into the city. Soon, Bubba held his hand before Felix, directing him to stop. Bubba peered down an alley, then waved him over to join him.

            "There's the place." Bubba said, barely above a whisper. "If there's any trouble, you make a break for it. No reason to get yourself killed over a grudge."

            "The guy killed my family, Bubba." Felix said coldly.

            "You want to join 'em?" Bubba asked, loudly. Felix breathed hard out his nose. "If there's any trouble, you run. No desperado crap."

            "Okay." Felix said. He straightened his tie again. Felix walked for the small shop, followed closely by Bubba. A yellowed sign with four red Japanese characters hung over the door. Assorted junk sat outside the window. More Japanese characters in ancient paint flaked off the window.

            "This doesn't look like any of the talismonger shops I've ever seen." Felix said, looking into the shop.

            "Says they sell magical items." Bubba said. He pointed at a series of characters along the side of the window. Felix sighed and stepped inside. Bubba had to duck to fit through the door, but straightened when he was under the ceiling.

            The shop was full to the brim with shelves of junk pawned and forgotten over the years. In the back was the cashier, surrounded by a steel cage. Most of the items worth anything hung behind the register on hooks screwed into the cheap drywall. Felix walked directly for the cage. Inside was a fat, bald man wearing a sweat stained tank top.

            "We got a call about someone selling a couple foci. An orc." Bubba said, looking straight past the cashier.

            "Nope. Ain't had foci in here for months." The cashier said. Bubba looked at the cashier, then at Felix.

            "Let's go. Now." Bubba said. Suddenly, a black car stopped in front of the door and three Japanese men stepped out. Both Felix and Bubba could see another person sitting in the back: a very badly burned orc with his most of his head wrapped in pressure bandages. The center man immediately raised his arm and fired and entire clip at Bubba. Bubba staggered backwards and fell against the wall. Felix stepped backwards and dug into his pocket for the gun. As soon as he pulled it out, one of the men kicked it out of his hand and punched him in the stomach. Felix fell holding his midsection, coughing. On the floor, the same man punched the side of his head, knocking him out. Two of them grabbed his arms and feet and carried him out into the alley. The cashier, stunned by the entire event, finally scrambled for the phone, punching the speed dial button to Lone Star several times.

            "C'mon, c'mon…" He pleaded into the receiver. "Hello? Yeah! I got some guy here that's been shot!" Suddenly, Bubba rolled over to his side and struggled to get up. He gripped the cage and hoisted his frame to stand.

            "Holy Christ!" The cashier exclaimed.

            "Drop the phone!" Bubba growled through his teeth. The cashier dropped the receiver and backed to the other end of the cage. Bubba tore his t-shirt off to reveal eight slugs deeply embedded in a Kevlar vest. He unfastened the vest and dropped it to the floor. Slugs dislodged and scattered like loose change. A pair of slugs broke through the vest, leaving small, neat wounds right under his ribcage. He pulled his secretary out of his pocket and hit the button programmed to dial DocWagon directly. The screen flashed on with the DocWagon logo. Bubba slid against the cage back down to the floor.

            "Thank you for choosing DocWagon." A polite, programmed voice said. "Our response team has locked on to your signal. Please select priority." A numbered list of options came over the screen. Bubba pushed choice number two. "Thank you. Please remember that selecting a priority above your current condition is grounds for revocation of your DocWagon membership."

The screen blinked to a smaller DocWagon logo and a timer counting backwards from three minutes. "If a response team does not respond to your situation, or you die before the timer expires, your care will be free of charge."

* * * * * * *

"Okay, dude, Circumstance is here. Hold up." Sparky said into the phone. He held the soy bologna sandwich he was eating over the receiver. "'Stance! Bubba wants to talk to ya!" Emily came out of her bedroom and went to Sparky. Sparky handed off the phone and went back to munching on his sandwich.

            "Yeah, Bubba?" Emily asked. "Whatcha need?"

            "You ain't gonna believe it." Bubba said.

            "Where are you?"

            "DocWagon clinic, downtown."

            "Holy…! What happened?" Emily grabbed the receiver with both fists.

            "We got a call, said that our orc was selling the foci at a place in the business district. We went down then and got jumped by three Asian dudes. They shot me close on fifteen times and carried Fletch away." Bubba explained.

            "What are we gonna do?" Emily exclaimed, closely hysterical. Bubba looked up from the gurney he was on at the Stainless Steel spider standing on his chest. It's legs came from a shiny dome the size of a Frisbee. Six legs kept the saucer even over Bubba while the other two fished around inside Bubba through the entry wounds. It pulled one or it's legs back, revealing it to be a foot long. The other end held the mangled remains of a bullet. It dropped it inside a compartment in the dome while the other arm continued fishing.

            "Dear, the only thing I'm concerned about it the chunk of metal eighteen millimeters from my spine and weather they find it or not." Bubba said, dropping his head back down. "I should be out of here in an hour. Can Spark get me?"

            "Sparky!" Emily yelled. "Can you get Bubba in an hour?"

            "Yeah, but it'll be tight. That van isn't as huge as the Bison was." Sparky replied.

            "Yes, he can."

            "Okay, dear." Bubba said. "I'll figure out what to do about Fletch when I get home. Goodbye." Bubba closed his secretary and laid it on the gurney.

            "Hey, doc!" Bubba called. "Mind getting me some more anaesthetic? I can feel this thing fishing around inside me."

* * * * * * *

            When Felix awoke, he didn't open his eyes. He felt very groggy. Felix took in his surroundings as best he could. He knew he was sitting with his hands and feet handcuffed to the chair. His arm hurt. He recognized the pain to be an IV, and guessed that to be the source of the haze his head was swimming in. His thigh also hurt. He recognized that pain to be from the sliver of wood from the violin that was digging into his skin. He moved his leg slightly, shifting the piece of wood and providing relief. When he did, he heard movement in front of him, a door open, and Japanese being spoken between two people.

            "Why, or why, couldn't I have taken Japanese instead of German in high school?" Felix silently cursed. Something tapped his shoulder hard. Felix lifted his head and opened his eyes. His vision was seriously blurred. He could only see a black figure and a gray room.

            "Are you awake?" asked the figure in a very Asian accented, very cold voice. Felix nodded his head slightly.

            "Then you will tell me where Celine Kryer is." The voice ordered. Felix looked at the figure again. He swallowed, trying to open his mouth to speak.

            "Who?" Felix finally asked. The figure approached and slapped him in the face. The chair tipped on two legs and came back down. The sliver of wood went back to digging into Felix's leg.

            "Where is Celine Kryer? The woman you are currently seeing." The figure said.

            "Oh!" Felix said, nodding his head. Felix knew what he was talking about. Emily. "Celine! She got, um…" Felix swallowed again. "She was taken in by Lone Star. Happened last week." Felix got slapped again. This time, a few boxes prevented him from crashing over. Felix pushed off the boxes with his elbow and dropped back to proper sitting position.

            "I do not believe you." The figure yelled. "Where is she?!"

            "Are you going to slap me again?" Felix asked. He did. "Guess so." Felix sighed. "I don't know. So I figure you'll keep me here until either you find her, she finds me, or you give up on her. Either way, I assume you'll kill me, right?"

            "You are very astute, Irwin Fletcher." The figure said. Felix smiled. More people saw that movie than he thought.

            "Hey, aren't you the guy that shot up her apartment?" Felix asked. No answer. "Yeah, it was you!" Felix exclaimed. He blinked his eyes a few times to try to clear his vision, but it didn't work. "She tell you why she wouldn't sleep with you? Huh? She told me." Felix laughed. Felix had an odd habit of getting bold in dire situations. The figure approached and bent towards Felix. Felix could see a round, white face.

            "Why?" The figure growled. He leaned closer.

            "She said people who's penises are smaller than their noses aren't deserving of her pity." The figure stood up straight and punched him in the stomach. Felix bent over, straining at his shackled wrists, retching. He was happy he didn't eat anything since the night before.

            "Yeah." Felix coughed. "I deserved that." The figure exited, slamming the door. Felix could hear the small servo of a security camera quietly buzz to zoom in on him. He drifted back to sleep.

* * * * * * *

"Is that the _only reason the Yak might be after you?" Sparky asked. Emily, Bubba and Sparky were in the living room of their apartment. Bubba stretched out on the couch, holding a twenty-pound bag of ice recently purchased at a gas station against his ribs._

"As far as I can tell. He wanted to get it on, I said no, he came in with three guys and a big gun." Emily explained. 

            "When you say 'big gun', is that ammo the size of a soda can 'big gun', or more than two barrels 'big gun'?" Sparky asked, making quote marks with his fingers. Bubba glared at him; the universal sign for "shut up".

"It has to be dissention in the ranks." Bubba said. "A Yakuza member doesn't show off that much power if he can't get his way. It would have much easier to kill you. Either that, or he's not with the Yakuza and just claiming he is. But no one's that stupid to go around saying that."

            "So we ain't screwin' with the whole organization?" Sparky asked.

            "Probably not. More like one spoiled child. But as soon as we mess with this one individual, the Yakuza will get in on it. That is, if he is actually in the organization."

            "So where is Fletch?" Emily asked. Bubba shook his head.

            "I don't know. We can do some asking around tonight if you want." Bubba suggested. Emily nodded.

            After midnight, the three squeezed into Sparky's vehicle and drove downtown to a large club. The bass of the music pounding inside could be heard from blocks away. They walked passed the long line to get in and up to the bouncer; a troll as large as Bubba was. Bubba gave him a five hundred nuyen note and was waved inside.

            "So where's your friend?" Bubba shouted at Emily.

            "I don't see her." Emily shouted back. She pointed at an empty booth. They walked across the floor, squeezing past masses of fluorescently tattooed teenagers high on the latest "legal" drug that hit the streets. As soon as they sat down, the volume dropped dramatically.

            "Did the music stop?" Sparky asked, sliding over to the center, cocking his head to listen for music.

            "No. These booths work on elliptical theory. Cuts off ninety nine percent of outside sound." Emily explained.

            "Good. That noise was driving me crazy." Bubba grunted. They ordered drinks, chatted and waited for Emily's friend. A waitress came back a second time.

            "Excuse me, ma'am?" The waitress asked. She presented a folded piece of paper to Emily. "A patron asked me to give you this. We have Matrix connections at every table." The waitress turned and left. Emily opened the piece of paper.

            "No wonder." Emily said. She dug into her pocket for a coil of cable. "She's waiting for me in some chat room somewhere." She searched the table for the socket and discovered it under her glass. She plugged the wire into her head, into the table, and sat back. The nightclub and the resonant noise of the music disappeared as Emily shot down a thin neon tunnel. She torpedoed out into the digital sky of the Matrix.

            "Display RTG address." Emily commanded. Three feet away, a little box appeared, displaying RTG 1199 Seattle.

            "Say what?" Emily said in disbelief to herself. "Display current users, RTG 1199 Seattle." Another box appeared right next to the address box and stretched into a long rectangle, displaying every legitimate user's handle.

            "Locate user White Doll." Emily said. The box of legitimate users vanished and a new rectangle containing one name appeared. Emily reached for the name and touched it. Emily's construct was pulled down to the virtual landscape and into a programmed park. The park she entered looked exactly like a park would. There was grass, benches, a fountain and even a swing set. The park was illuminated from an invisible source of light. The entire place was deserted except for one figure. It approached Emily.

            "Couldn't get your lazy butt out of the house to see me in person, eh?" Emily said. A box appeared out of the corner of her vision, recording her words in text. As the figure floated closer, USER: WHITE DOLL blinked over her head in red letters then vanished. White Doll looked like a very slender woman, her skin very black, with a white mask. The white mask had black eye holes and deeply red lips.

            "I am sitting four booths down from you, Circumstance." White Doll said. Her mask stayed stationary. "What do you need?"

            "This park is secure, right?"

            "Yes. I have injected ten minutes of looping white noise into the construct. This will keep most users away."

"Are you still fairly tight with the Yakuza?" Emily asked.

            "Perhaps. What do you need to know?"

            "I need to know where they're keeping someone they kidnapped this afternoon."

            "That is very interesting." White Doll said. "But it is also expensive."

            "The usual?" Emily asked.

            "If you would, please." White Doll replied. Emily reached into an animated pocket and withdrew a bundle of bills. She tossed it to White Doll, initializing the funds transfer process. The bundle of nuyen hovered and flickered slightly, the continued on it's flight path for White Doll's hand. Upon contact, the nuyen vanished into her hand as if she absorbed it.

            "Thank you. Who do you suspect kidnapped this person?"

            "I don't know his name. He's very vulgar, very violent, and very horny." Emily said. White Doll tossed her head back and laughed a recorded laugh. Her face remained static.

            "I believe I know exactly who he is. Tell me, did he claim to be an oyabun? For the Shigeda-gumi?" White Doll asked.

            "I think so. Whatever it meant is beyond me. I assumed it's the boss."

            "Correct. That's what it means, but he is certainly nowhere near that high in the organization. The man you're dealing with is Yoshi Shira. His is the brother of one of the higher ranked officers of the gumi. His position has absolutely no value to the organization. His only job is to mind his business and do what his brother tells him. For this he gets enough pocket money to feed his drug habit."

"Yoshi is also a very violent, very visceral man. He lives for torture and abuse. He has killed for sport and has a history of collecting souvenirs. Video is his favorite."

            "Now I know what I'm paying for. Go on." Emily said.

            "If your friend was taken by Yoshi, and I believe he was, Yoshi will be videotaping him."

            "Any idea where he is?" Emily asked.

"No. The only link I have to him is his dealer. White Doll plucked a scroll out of midair and tossed it to Emily. She tore the red wax seal off and unrolled the scroll. Listed within was a telephone number. She rolled it up again and pressed it lengthwise against her head. Her head absorbed the scroll, writing it to memory.

            "If I'm not mistaken, Shira arranges to pick up his purchase from him directly." White Doll explained.

"I don't know." Emily said. "Wouldn't he send an errand boy to pick it up for him?"

"Uh-uh. He picks it up personally. He usually consumes half of it before returning back home or to work, and he's much too paranoid of his staff."

"This information was a bit pricey, but I do appreciate it, White Doll." Emily said. "Thank you." White Doll bowed slightly and blinked out of existence. Emily went to her pocket again and took out a very large and exaggerated gun. She pointed it at each of the boxes that hovered near her and blasted them, deleting each one and purging it from her deck. She closed her eyes and shut the Matrix out of her mind, letting the soft beat of the club come back to her. She reached up, pulled the plug out, and opened her eyes to Sparky and Bubba chatting. They looked at her.

            "Done?" Sparky asked as Emily wound the wire around her fingers loosely. She stuffed it back into her pocket.

            "I've got a lead. Our kidnapper loves drugs."

            "Excellent. Phone number?" Sparky asked. Emily brought it up over her optical display and read it off to Sparky.

            "Oh, that's funny." Sparky said.

            "What?" Bubba asked.

            "Wanna hear a story about the luckiest guy in the sprawl? That's Michael Boone's telephone number, but everyone knows him as Stupid Mike." Sparky explained. "He earned his nickname when his answering machine used to say 'If you want Bliss, Burn or old fashioned 'E', please leave your name, address and size of your order and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Beep!'. You can guess where he spent the next twenty seven months, eh?"

            "Anyway, when he got out, he didn't use an answering machine, but he still kept dealing. When octagons got real popular about three, four years ago, he dealt those along with all the other dealers, but he picked up a very exclusive client. No big deal. Most dealers usually pick up a couple higher-ups. But then all the new ways to fry your cranium came out and all the dealers switched with the clientele. Not Stupid Mike. His one big customer still wanted octagons, and he was making such a good living off this one guy he decided to drop all other substances and keep him happy. Last I heard, he's the only guy out there who still deals octagons."

            "Great. I know all I'll ever need about a dealer named 'Stupid Mike'." Bubba groaned.

            "But I bet Circumstance can name his number one customer." Sparky said, pointing at Emily. Bubba raised his head and slowly nodded in understanding. Sparky reached to a pocket in his leather pants and took out a small phone. He tapped the numbers and held the phone to his head.

            "Hey, hey! Mikey!" Sparky greeted. "How's things going? Wiz, man, real wiz. Say, you think I can score some Sparkle from you? The kids down here at this club are just into it, you know!" Sparky's smile drooped at the corners slightly. "You don't, huh? Why not? Awww, come on, Mikey! This is Spark! You _know me, man! You can kick me a little." Sparky winked at Bubba. Bubba rolled his eyes; he never totally approved of Sparky's planning or tactics. "Oh, you seriously don't have any? Well, you still got some of those moldy octagons around somewhere? Yeah, yeah, I know you just made 'em. Stop bitching and tell me where I can score, oh, half a pound from you. Yeah, eight ounces. Of course I know how many pills are in eight ounces. Yeah, I have the money. Would you just shut up and tell me where to meet you?" Sparky fell silent while he listened to Mike on the other end. "Okay. Now that I think about it, can you make it a full pound? Just found some extra creds in my shorts. Later." Sparky slapped the phone shut and shoved it into his pants again._

            "That fool is too damned scared to walk the streets with seventy eight thousand worth of methamphetamines." He explained.

            "Rightfully so." Bubba said.

            "He gave me his address. Let's go." Sparky said.

            "Whoa! One second there!" Bubba exclaimed, holding Sparky's arm. "What if he has some assault cannon and decides he's not going to sell tonight?"

            "We steal that mother." Sparky said. "How many octo-heads do you know?" Bubba didn't reply. "See? No one's buying except that Yakuza guy. You think that he can afford one? Chill. Let's go." Sparky pulled loose and stepped back out onto the packed dance floor. Bubba and Emily followed. After ten minutes of driving, they ended up in a section of nice, lower-middle class neighborhood; the kind where graffiti was on the walls but it was still quiet and safe enough to go to your car at two in the morning and not get robbed. Sparky parked his van in front of Mike's garage.

            "All dealer's are paranoid so…" Sparky started.

            "I know, I know." Bubba said. "I shall wait outside. Keep me company, Circumstance?"

            "Of course." Emily said. They all got out and while Bubba and Emily waited on the sidewalk while Sparky went to the front door. He pounded on it twice.

            "Mikey!" Sparky shouted. "Open up, you octo-head!" The door flew open. A slightly overweight man in a wife beater, blue striped boxer shorts and a two-day old beard stood there holding the doorknob.

            "Ha, ha. You're funny." Mike said. "Get in here before you let the whole complex know who I am." Sparky stepped into the utterly filthy apartment. Mike sat down on a couch with no cushions and picked his cigarette from the edge of the arm of the couch.

            "So how you been? I haven't seen you since I placed an order on your answering machine." Sparky said, putting his hands on his hips.

            "Sparky, are you gonna buy or not?" Mike exclaimed irritably. The cigarette fell from his mouth and into his lap. He picked it up and placed it back into his mouth.

            "Geez, Mike, I just wanted to know how you were doing! You still doing business with that one Yak dude? He know that octagons are out of style?"

            "That's none of his or your goddamned business." He said quietly. Suddenly, Sparky felt a sharp point against his back. Out of reflex, he raised his hands.

            "You don't have a pound of octagons, do you?" Sparky said.

            "I haven't made any for three weeks." Mike said. "Good thing you showed up."

            "Alright, chump." The greasy voice said behind Sparky's ear. "Just tell me what pocket the creds are in and you won't have to worry about a hole in your back.

            Across the room, the doorknob jiggled, then the entire door came off it's hinges as Bubba pulled it away. He tossed the door behind him, ducked and entered the apartment. The man behind Sparky whipped the knife in front of Sparky's throat and poked his head above Sparky's shoulder to see what was happening.

            "You come any closer and I'll slice his throat, trog!" He growled. Bubba reached for his revolver and held it out in front of him. He walked toward the man behind Sparky until the gun barrel was over his nose. The man was cross-eyed and trembling.

            "That a…" The man started. He swallowed. "That a flare gun?"

"I hope you have a tattoo or some kind of birthmark below your neck, because if I have to pull the trigger, they won't even have dental records to identify you by." Bubba said in a soft, even voice. He knew this was just a street punk with no spine to call his own. The guy dropped the knife and fled out the front door.

"You okay, Sparky?" Bubba asked, replacing the gun where he got it.

"Oh yeah. Just had a _fucking knife to my throat_, that's all." Sparky replied, rubbing his neck. He looked to the couch. "Where's Mike?" Bubba looked down the short hallway at the dirty bathroom door. He walked to it and pushed it open slowly. It reeked from the long un-flushed toilet. The moldy shower curtain was drawn shut.

"Now I realize you deserve your moniker. Get out of there and tell us where your Yakuza client is." Bubba ordered. Suddenly, a shot punched through the curtain and struck Bubba in the stomach. Bubba looked down and tried to put his pinky through the small hole. He shook his shirt. The slug dropped to the yellow linoleum. Bubba grabbed the curtain and jerked it off the rod. Mike was curled up in the bathtub, holding his head.

"Don't kill me, don't kill me, don't kill me…" He whimpered. Bubba growled softly, reached down and took a fistful of Mike's hair. As Bubba lifted him in the air, Mike started to cry. Bubba sighed.

"Would you _please tell me where your Yakuza customer is?" Bubba asked nicely. "You don't have to cry about it. Please?" Mike continued to whine and mumble incoherently.  "I promise to put you down." _

"Hey, Bubba! Don't kill him." Sparky said. He walked into the bathroom. After two paces in, he closed his eyes and jerked back his head.

"Kee-rhyst! That's a funky toilet." Sparky exclaimed. He waved his hand in front of his face rapidly.

"What is it, Sparky?" Bubba said. "I'm busy."

"Anyway, there was a message printed out on the phone." Sparky held it up to read. "Michael, I will kill you for forgetting to bring me my shipment. I will tear out your heart and feed it to you before you die. Yadda, yadda, yadda, love Mister Shira. Has his return phone number and everything." Sparky looked at Mike. "You made a lot of friends when you got out of the joint, didn't you?"

"Good job. Let's go." Bubba said. Mike began to sound like he was laughing and crying at the same time. Bubba set him down on the toilet. Emily, Bubba and Sparky regrouped outside the apartment and squeezed in the van. As soon as they pulled off, Emily started to fidget and tap her foot impatiently.

            "What's the matter with you?" Sparky asked white driving.

            "Nothing. Just want to find out where Felix is."

            "Who?" Sparky asked, looking at Emily strangely.

            "No, I meant Fletch." Emily said. "Slip of the tongue."

            "Right." Bubba moaned. "So what do we do now?"

            "I figure since we have a phone number, we should make our way in through the Matrix and find Fletch's precise location. Then we can better plan his extraction." Sparky explained.

            "Sounds solid." Bubba commented. Sparky got his phone out and handed it to Emily, who was riding shotgun.

            "Find out about that phone number, Em. See if it belongs to a company and look for public grids and the like." Sparky said. Emily plugged the phone into her head and looked up information on the phone number they found at Mike's apartment. They arrived home, gave Baby a pack of Cobalt's to open the door and went inside. Bubba went into his bedroom and brought out different appliances and metal boxes.

            "Okay, Circumstance. Explain." Sparky said. He sat on the floor, a cyberdeck across his lab. A pair of wires from deep inside his tower of hair connected to the side of the deck.

            "The company this phone number belongs to is Yakuza. But he isn't connected to the actual Yak grid. He's on his own little private grid." Emily said, sitting across from Sparky. She plugged a wire into one the sockets on her head and tossed the other end to Sparky. He plugged it into his deck.

            "Here's the info I found at the county assay office gave me on the warehouses and it's security measures." Emily said.  Sparky closed his eyes.

            "Jesus!" Sparky exclaimed. "He must have stole most of this junk from the main office!" He opened his eyes. "This is some dangerous shit."

            "We ought to be okay."

            "The instant the warning buzzer goes off I'm outta there, girl. Ain't gonna get my hoop lit up over nobody, especially someone the Yakuza snatched."

            "You whine too much." Bubba grunted, dropping an oscilloscope on the floor next to Emily. He plugged the machines and appliances into an extension cord and connected the all with a few wires. He took one and handed it to Emily. She plugged it into yet another socket into her head; now three wires hung from her temple. She plugged one last wire into the final socket in her head.

            "I'm good on this end, big guy." Emily said. Bubba tuned the dials on the oscilloscope until a pair of heartbeats blipped across the green screen. The bottom one pulsed by at a fairly slow rate. The top one was double the lower one's rate.

            "A little nervous, dear?" Bubba asked.

            "Excited, actually." Emily said. She scratched her temple around the wires. "Ready?"

            "Give me a second." Bubba said, tuning a knob on another black box. "We have a trid satellite floating overhead. We should try to snag it."

            "Just hurry up, please." Emily said.

            "Yes dear." Bubba groaned. "Okay, cool. That should give us a few extra seconds. Anytime guys."

            "Excellent." Emily said. She closed her eyes and shot out of the neon torpedo tube into the residual green glow of the Matrix once again. She looked around her. Beside her was Sparky, his persona sculpted to Mr. T. Emily smiled.

            "Still pitying the fools, Spark?" Emily asked. Sparky repeated a sound file of Mr. T saying "I pity da fool" a couple times, his face and mouth following along.

            "You have a new costume, but your taste in genres stays the same. Which anime _femme fatale is that?" Sparky asked, playing with the numerous gold chains around his neck. Emily looked down at her hands in crimson gloves with black palms._

            "I've got it on a cycle. This one is Asuka from Evangelion." Emily tossed back her persona's long red hair.

            "She suits you. The new series?"

            "No way. Forget that recycled garbage. The original is still the best." Emily said. "Let's do this."

            "Yeah, enough of tha jibba-jabba. I wanna launch some IC inta space!" Mr. T exclaimed, shaking his fist in the air. "Yo, get us down to RTG 8818, befo' I whoop yo ass!" A blue van appeared around the two with Sparky in the drivers seat. A second later, the doors opened. "RTG 8818" scrolled across the windshield. Emily and Sparky exited the vehicle into a busy thoroughfare of Matrix users. Emily reached for her head and pulled from her temple the scroll she stuck there before. She opened it up, and instead of text and codes, a big red arrow pointed straight ahead.

            "The warehouses, right?" Sparky asked.

            "Uh, yeah." Emily replied. She squeezed the scroll back into her head and the two proceeded to a small blue block. A neon sign blazed "Shira Properties, Inc. Public Information". They walked inside and saw nothing more than a counter and a man in a black suit. When they entered, it bowed deeply.

            "Welcome to Shira-Micheals Properties, Inc. I am an information persona to provide you service. Please do not ask me any questions that do not apply directly to Shira-Micheals Properties, Inc. How may I help you…" The information persona paused a split second. "this morning?"

            "How 'bout you jump over dis counter and suck my snake?" Sparky growled at the animated figure. The man in the black suit turned to Sparky.

            "Please refrain from using profanity. Your question must refer to a valid business inquiry." The man said, his face like stone.

            "Identify helper-persona." Emily said. The man turned to Emily and stepped forward.

            "I am 'James', version 7.8, HelperBot, Inc. Shall I list a menu of options for you, madam?"

            "No thank you." Emily said. "Please allow my associate and I to converse in private." The man nodded.

            "The recorder is switched off. You may now converse in privacy." The man said. Emily turned to Mr. T.

            "How's your spoof program?" Emily asked.

            "Shit, I bought the brand new Triple-P package two weeks ago. I'll have this guy milking a cow." Mr. T said. "Yo, James!" The man turned back to Sparky. "Switch whoever the hell your last boss was to us." James stood silent for a moment.

            "James is now in the service of users Circumstance and Sparky." James announced.

            "Good. Get me the records of this conversation." Emily said. James reached into the air and pointed. A box appeared with the conversation between Emily, Sparky and James. Included toward the bottom, after James claimed the recorder was turned off, were lines of text of Emily asking Sparky about his spoof program.

            "See? They always say they turn it off." Emily said. She went to the hip of Asuka's red body suit, opened a pocket that wasn't there and removed her gigantic gun. She blasted the window, deleting it.

            "James, list System Access Nodes for us." Emily said.

            "None exist at this node, madam." James said.

            "Analyze slave subsystem." Emily said. From her hip pocket, she produced a magnifying glass. Through it, in the floor behind the counter, she saw the trap door that connected Yoshi's small office to the Matrix.

            "God, this guy thinks he's some hot shit, doesn't he?" Sparky said, looking down at the trap door. "Thinks he has to use everything he borrowed from the main office." Emily raised the gun at James and fired. The construct of James exploded into blood and gore and splattered all over the wall. The mess slowly faded away.

            "Excellent." Sparky said. "Let's crash this joint and get inside. Wanna do it?"

            "Naw, you." Emily said. Behind Sparky, a man smoking a cigar and wearing gloves stepped out, holding a bundle of dynamite.

            "I'll take care of this." He said though his teeth, tightly clinching the cigar. Emily and Sparky logged off. The man lit the bundle off of his cigar and crashed the public information grid.

"What was up with that?" Sparky asked Emily in the real world. "Not even so much as a second level probe. This guy broke or something?"

            "I dunno. Maybe he's just stupid. Or he's trying to get us in and blow our decks out of service." Emily replied.

            "Ain't that bad. Hell, that's where I got my name. My board looked like a fireworks show. Bam!"

            "If a fireworks show goes off in my deck, my brain is as good as beef stew." Emily said. She scratched her head. "Okay, let's do this." Emily and Sparky re-entered through the trap door they found. Just as they expected, they found themselves in a field next to a walled city. However, when she looked at Sparky, she didn't see the persona she expected; a peasant from some ancient Japanese dynasty. She saw Mr. T.

            "You're still Mr. T." Emily said.

            "And you're that anime chick. What the hell?" Sparky asked. "This guy know what's up with his grid or not?"

            "I dunno. Something's messed up." Emily said. Sparky and Emily approached the walled city. Again to their dismay, the entrance was not guarded, nor even gated.

            "Okay, dammit." Sparky growled. "What is this? Emily reached behind her back and pulled a very nasty looking machine gun from thin air.

            "As far as I can guess, they cleaned everything out to make room for some hellish ice." Emily said, looking around. "Get ready." Sparky and Emily proceeded into the walled city slowly. When the crossed the threshold, the field outside disappeared. A gigantic pagoda stood in the middle of a small courtyard. 

            "God, look at this. It's disgusting." Emily sneered. "This guy just stole shit and plugged it in. Didn't even configure it."

            "I hope so. This is making me nervous." Sparky replied. "See anything yet?"

            "Nope. I'm sure we will inside." Emily said. They approached the ornately decorated door. Sparky kicked it open. Suddenly, an orange robed Shaolin monk jumped at Sparky and kicked Mr. T in the face. Mr. T slid back and hit the wall. Asuka lowered her gun and sprayed at the monk. The monk deftly dodged each bullet, slowly approaching Asuka. He jumped and hit Asuka with a spinning roundhouse. She also hit the dirt and slid back a few feet. The monk was about to stomp Asuka when Mr. T grabbed him from behind and held him in a half nelson. Asuka unloaded into the monk. His body spasmodically jerked, B-movie style. When Asuka was sure the monk posed no more threat, she stopped firing and Mr. T launched it into the stratosphere of the Matrix.

            "Son of a bitch! What the hell was that?" Mr. T screamed.

            "Far as I figure? Blaster-12." Asuka said, standing up.

            "_Twelve?" Mr. T asked in disbelief. "Can they do that?"_

            "They just did." Asuka said. She tossed her gun off to the side and pulled out a gun that a person of Asuka's size could not possibly hope to wield efficiently.

            "Forget this." Mr. T growled. "There's no way…"

            "Sparky! We just did! We… I need you!" Asuka pleaded. Mr. T sighed.

            "Yeah, yeah. Fine. Let's get this shit over with." They walked into the inside. The main hall was very plain. The design was pulled from twenty year old constructs. The colors were flat and polygons were easily visible.

            "Yesterday's house, tomorrow's security system." Sparky said quietly to himself. Asuka removed a pair of binoculars and began to look the house over for the security cameras. Suddenly, another Shaolin monk appeared from nowhere and punched Asuka in the head. She dropped her binoculars and her gun as she reeled from the blow. Mr. T ran up and boxed him. Each blow Mr. T landed knocked the ice back a few steps. Soon the ice flickered and disappeared. Before he could react and adjust, another orange robed countermeasure jumped out from the wall and kicked Mr. T squarely in the stomach. Mr. T's image dropped, flickered and blinked out. Asuka went for her gun and sprayed bullets in the monk's direction. Enough of them hit the monk to kill it.

            "Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Sparky exclaimed. When his construct of Mr. T crashed, he jumped back into the real world. He awoke to find the deck on his lap sparking and smoking. He yanked the cords out of his head and stood up, knocking the board to the floor. The deck caught fire. Bubba jumped over, took off his jacket and smothered the deck.

            "Fuck that. If a guy wants to load his shit up with ice, I ain't gonna have any part in it." Sparky leaned over to see a monitor of what Emily was seeing. He took a pair of headphones off the floor, put them on and lowered the microphone

            "Yo, get your ass out of there." Sparky said. "No point to all this." 

            "If I don't find Fletch, he's going to be killed." Emily exclaimed. She picked up her gun off the ground.

            "What the hell good is it going to do if you get geeked along with him!" Sparky exclaimed.

            "Don't get in my way then." Emily said. She cut off the video feed. Sparky tore off the headphones.

            "Fuck! Goddammit, girl!" Sparky screamed. He looked at Bubba standing a few feet away with his arms crossed. "What the hell we gonna do?" Bubba shrugged his shoulders.

            "We let her work. She'll kick our ass if we get in the way." Bubba answered.

"Condition monitor." Emily said. A box appeared with a map of the cyberdeck packed inside her head. Various areas of the map blinked in various colors. A couple large areas blinked rapidly in red.

            "Okay, I can do this." Emily reassured herself. She let the gun drop and disappear. "Locate slave. Where the hell are the security cameras?" A disembodied hand appeared, pointing down a newly appeared hallway, then disappeared. She reached behind her back again, only this time arming herself with an army surplus flame-thrower. She started slowly down the hallway, closely examining the untextured walls. The simplicity of the obsolete structure made Emily uneasy. Combined with the cutting edge intrusion countermeasures, Emily couldn't distinguish between what might be a threat and what would be harmless. She continued as the flickering flame at the end of the nozzle lit her way.

            "I still don't get it." Sparky said. He took another drag off of a blue cigarette. "What could you possibly hope to accomplish by packing nothing but ice in your grid? And, the Steve Dallas program is the hottest shit out there! How were we spotted?"

            "My opinion?" Bubba asked, still leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

            "Yeah, your opinion." Sparky replied.

            "That stuff is engaging every user that logs in. There's no such thing as legitimacy in there."

            "Why?"

            "Doesn't want to run the risk of anything getting inside." Bubba said. "The sysop is guarding something awfully damaging to his career." Bubba shrugged his shoulders. "Or it's some nine year old protecting his fort." He looked over to Emily, still sitting cross-legged in the middle of all the appliances on the floor. "She's gonna run into killjoy, and I bet the sysop has a hammer."

            "You'd better watch that monitor close and pull her ass outta there if there is." Sparky said. "I won't let her be number thirteen." Bubba smiled.

            "I lose either way. If she isn't, Fletch is."

            "Locate slave. Security camera." Emily said for the ninth time. Again the disembodied hand popped in front of her, pointed down the seemingly endless hallway, and disappeared. She sighed. The giant flame-throwing attack program was slowing her search, but she didn't want to get knocked offline like Sparky was before. She stopped to rest for a second. She looked behind her. Five feet behind her, a smooth wall closed off the hallway behind her. She wouldn't be able to go out the way she came.

            "Damn!" Emily growled. "Display active memory contents." A box popped up displaying the programs she was currently running. She scrolled through them and unloaded all the armor programs she was running.

            "Hope this isn't suicide." Emily thought. She started down the hallway again. Now she was able to run. After a few seconds, she saw a figure in the middle of the corridor. She knew it was ice waiting for her, eager as ever now that she was unprotected. She continued to run. As soon as she was able to see it clearly, she unleashed the fuel of the flame-thrower, totally engulfing the waiting samurai and the entire hall. She ran through unscathed.

            "What was that?" Emily shouted. A box popped up, identifying the ice as Killjoy-12. She continued. Every few seconds, she'd encounter another waiting samurai. She blazed through them with her custom-made attack program, crashing each one before it had a chance to attack back. Suddenly, she screeched to a halt, totally surprised. She came to the end of the hallway, running into a gigantic room, hundreds of feet high and wide. A tremendous cylinder, with it's seamless wall lined with bright surveillance monitors. From the walls came five samurai, each armed with a katana of pure light. They cast tall, thin shadows against the video walls of the chamber. Emily looked behind her to see the hallway blink into nothingness.

            "Identify!" Emily commanded as she waved the flame-thrower back and forth in front of her, spraying white-hot napalm all over the chamber. A box appeared, listing Killjoy-16 five times. One dove toward her. Emily swung the nozzle and sprayed it in mid-air. The samurai disappeared in an explosion of fire and light. Two others did the same. As she intercepted one, the other landed next to her and plunged the katana of light into the tank on her back. The tank exploded, crashing Emily's program and blasting her clear across the chamber. Before she landed, she twisted and landed on her feet, facing the remaining enemies. She backed to the wall, reaching for another attack program. The three samurai approached slowly, their swords making it harder and harder to see them as they came closer. As soon as Emily readied one of her previous machine guns, the ice vanished. The box that identified the countermeasures emptied and now listed NO DETECTION.

            Emily looked around, still holding her gun close. The walls of monitors cast flickering shadows on the floor and around her.

            "Eliminate idle displays and white noise." Emily shouted at nothing in the room. Over half of the monitors blinked into blackness.

            "Eliminate perimeter displays." Another half disappeared. Emily floated from the floor of the chamber and began to glance over the remaining monitors. As she did, a new shadow appeared. She paid no attention, too busy with her search and thinking it was own. She gave it her undivided attention when she was struck by it. She spun wildly and crashed into the floor. Her gun was nowhere to be found.

            "Identify!" Emily screamed in terror. A box popped up, listing USER: ANONYMOUS.

            "Christ!" Sparky exclaimed. "What the hell was that?" He tossed his lit cigarette into the kitchen and kneeled down next to the oscilloscope. Emily's pulse jumped all over the screen, then steadied out into rapid beats. Bubba rushed to one of the boxes on the floor, flicked a switch and picked up the headphones.

            "What's happening, dear?" Bubba asked. He flicked another switch. A monitor turned on, displaying Emily's deck. The entire deck flashed rapidly in red.

            "Clear memory. Load B&D Five-K." Bubba heard Emily command through the headphones. A box opened over the red blinking deck and displayed Emily's new program.

            "Don't you dare! Emily!" Bubba shouted into the microphone. "Get out of there!"

            "No!" Emily shouted back. She held an exaggeratedly huge black claw hammer in her red hands, the clawed end poised to strike. Above, a shadow descended, shaped as a gigantic samurai, wielding a katana that also seemed to be made of shadows. The shadow suddenly dove at Emily, bringing the katana down. Emily rolled out of the way and struck the shadow in the stomach with the claw. The shadow swung again, striking Asuka in the leg. In the apartment, blood ran down the cords connecting Emily to the Matrix.

            "I'm pulling you out!" Bubba exclaimed. He reached for the wet cords. When he had them, Emily seized his wrist and held it firmly with a grip that startled Bubba. She opened her eyes and looked at Bubba.

            "No…" She whispered. Suddenly, she let go and twisted in pain. She found herself against the wall, her claw hammer in her lap, and the shadow standing over her.

            "I am lord and master of this domain!" The shadow bellowed from a formless mouth. It's voice echoed through the chamber. "Trespassers will be destroyed!" Emily scrambled to the opposite side of the chamber.

            "What are you hiding?" Emily asked, holding the hammer out in front of her. The shadow dove for her again. She ducked under it and struck it as it passed over. The shadow again struck her as well.

            "I hide nothing! You are doomed looking for it!" The shadow bellowed. Emily backed slowly to the wall.  Through the shadow, she could see one monitor shining through. It was a man tied to a chair, dressed in a dark gray suit.

            "Felix…" Emily whispered, dropping her guard. The shadow flowed forward and ran Emily through the stomach with the shadowy katana.

            "God! She just flat-lined!" Sparky screamed. Emily's body sat straight and still. The only movement came from the drops of blood falling from the cords.

            "There's still brain activity! She's got a chance!" Bubba bellowed back.

            The shadow lifted the lifeless crimson corpse of the young redheaded girl into the air, speared on the katana. It pulled her close to it's dark face.

            "So pretty. So delicate…" The shadow whispered. Her body sprung to life. Her eyes opened wide and her body arched backwards, raising the hammer high. The oscilloscope danced again with her heartbeat. 

            "So long." Emily whispered. She struck the shadow in the face with the head of the hammer, shattering it into thousand pieces of dark glass. She dropped and struck the floor, but jumped up and ran for the wall. She saw Felix. She ran her hand over the image.

            "Copy location of slave. Display on all terminals. Loop." She whispered. A box popped up over the monitor. ESTIMATED HOST SHUTDOWN: 0:05… 0:04… 0:03…

            Then the chamber disappeared.


	9. Chapter IX

Chapter Nine

Felix's captor quickly walked down a row of office doors. He stopped abruptly at one.

            "Yee!" He commanded. He stepped inside to see a man hunched over a desk. Blood ran off the edge and on to the carpet in one steady column. He slammed the door again and stomped back down the hallway.

* * * * * * *

"So what's in the other package?" Morris asked.

            "Anticipation, I guess." Sparky replied. He pushed the package forward to Morris. He tore the top off of the box with one tug. He pulled out the folded black leather trench coat and shook it out.

            "The thing weighs a ton." Morris commented.

            "It's armored. Metal plates and Kevlar." Morris laid the coat across his lap and tilted the box towards him. He reached to the bottom of the box and grabbed the pistol. "And that is a Savelite Guardian. Only heavy grade pistol that can chew through a clip three bullets at a time."

            "You bought these for me?" Morris asked is slight disbelief. He dropped the gun back in the box and went back to examining the trench coat.

            "No, they're on loan if you'd like to use them. I thought I'd pay a visit to the man who organized the attack on you Friday morning." Morris looked up in surprise.

            "It was _organized_? How? Who?" Morris exclaimed.

            "I can't give you a name, but it was John Montgomery. Oh damn." Sparky said, smiling.

            "How'd you find out? Why'd he want to do that to me?"

            "I beat it out of one of the punks that jumped you. The chairman paid him and a few other students to chase the 'undesirables' out. He paid them off with passing grades in some of their classes. Trolls and orcs aren't attending the University because they're too stupid, you know."

            "I'm going to murder him." Morris growled. He reached back into the box and took hold of the pistol once again. "If they're already hunting me, I have nothing to lose."

            "I have a better idea." Sparky interjected. "There's this nice biker place on in the ass-end of Seattle that Chairman Montgomery would love to visit…" Rapping came from the door.    

Bubba opened his eyes. He fell asleep sitting against the wall outside Emily's room. He checked his watch. Both hands pointed at six. Knocking came from the door again. The monkey charged for the door, eagerly anticipating her present. He rolled around to his knees, stood up walked to the door. Baby triggered the door to open. Standing there was a thin gentleman in sunglasses and a leather trench coat. He held a toolbox.

"Hi. There a patient here?" He asked. Bubba pointed at the couch. Sparky's deck laid there, charred and still slightly smoldering. The man took off his sunglasses. His eyes were wide.

"Dios mio!" He exclaimed softly as he crossed himself. He knelt down next to it. "Did you notify it's next of kin?"

"How long will it take to fix?"

"I can arrange a proper burial." The man pulled his hand inside the sleeve of his coat and picked up the deck.

"See she has an afterlife. We have the cred." Bubba assured the man. He inhaled and shook his head.

"Good thing I'm a miracle worker. I'll call you in a week." The man exited the apartment. Bubba closed the door behind the gentleman and went to Emily's bedroom door. He pushed it open gently.

            "How's it going?" Bubba asked from the doorway of Emily's room. She was laying on the bed, her head resting on a blood soaked pillow. A triangle shaped section of her skin from her head, from her ear to the inside corner of her left eye to the top of her head, had been removed. Sparky sat over her head, with his tall column of hair squashed inside of a rubber cap and a mask over his face, reassembling the cyberdeck inside and removing the destroyed portions with tiny precision tools. Emily's left eye stared blankly at Bubba.

            "Got all the charred material out of there and stopped the bleeding. No hemorrhaging, and I have no idea how she got that lucky. I can get her patched back up, but I need Doc to do the finishing touches and get rid of the scars." He removed his tools, stood up, and removed his cap and mask. He stepped outside with Bubba and closed the door. He reached into his pants pocket for his cigarettes. He took one out, lit it, and sucked hard on it. "Damn her outrageous luck."

            "She going to be alright?" Bubba asked. Sparky sucked hard on his cigarette again and tossed it in the general area of the kitchen.

            "Can't say." Sparky said, smoke pouring from his mouth as he spoke. "Doc's the better judge of that." Sparky looked at monitors still on the floor. They displayed sets of coordinates, scrolling over and over again. 

"How long has that been displaying?" Sparky asked, approaching one of the monitors.

"Since you went in to work on Emily. Five hours. That an location?" Bubba asked.

            "Camera address." Sparky said. "That camera is pointing toward our magician, no doubt. He's locked down pretty tightly."

            "Can we get him?" Bubba asked. Sparky shook his head.

            "No. This master location is a known Yak warehouse." Sparky explained, pointing to a portion of the code. "And this isn't my usual cowardice talkin'. We don't have the manpower, or the guns to pull it off. You know they keep their property protected as much as the Star does." Bubba looked at the ground, thinking. He reached into his pocket and took out his secretary.

            "I'm calling the Trump Card." Bubba said grimly. Sparky's eyes widened.

            "What? We can't _afford_ the Trump Card!" Sparky exclaimed. Bubba didn't reply as he brought the phone to his head. Sparky stepped forward and grabbed Bubba's wrist. He jerked it down.

            "We already owe enough people money!" Sparky barked, two feet from Bubba's face. "We're still paying for Emily! We can't do this!" Bubba grabbed Sparky by the collar and hoisted him eye to eye. Both men scowled at each other as their foreheads were pressed together.

            "We have to!" Bubba growled.

            "This job is every man for himself! Fletch knew that!" 

            "You're talking like he's already dead! This is more than that! Circumstance loves that kid! That's the only reason she let herself get messed up like that!" Bubba put Sparky down slowly. He pointed into the bedroom. "If she dies, the only way to validate that is to bring Fletch back alive." Sparky silently cursed.

            "Fine. Do what you have to." Sparky said. He stomped into his bedroom and slammed the door. Bubba growled for a moment at Sparky and dialed a number. The phone rang a couple times, then the other end picked up. Silence.

            "I need a favor." Bubba said.

            "What manner of favor?" asked a high pitched, scrambled, computerized voice.

            "A friend has been kidnapped. We need him back."

            "Where is he?" The voice asked. Bubba took one of the numerous cords off the floor, plugged it into the pocket secretary and transferred the camera location through.

            "Will there be anything else?"

            "We need him back now. They may kill him." The voice fell silent. "Hello?"

            "The favor will cost you two hundred ten thousand nuyen. One hundred eighty thousand nuyen if your friend is already dead. Do you agree to my terms?"

            "Yes."

            "Meet me outside of your residence in thirty-five minutes." The voice said. Bubba hung up.

            Yoshi Shira and the severely injured orc stood before the security terminal monitoring Felix. 

            "Do you think they know where he is?" The orc asked.

            "I doubt it." Shira replied. "I ordered the grid locked down. No user may pass." He looked at the orc in his one unbandaged eye. "Will you be staying for my demonstration?" The orc looked back.

            "Pardon?"

            "I believe you will thoroughly enjoy it." The man said, smiling evilly. He went to a small box and opened it. Inside was a clear jar holding clear liquid.

            "Acid?" The orc asked.

            "Not exactly. You shall see." The man replied. "But I believe this will weaken his desire to keep his girlfriend safe. Allow me to insert a disc and we shall begin the interrogation."

            The black semi approached the warehouses silently. The only one taking notice was the security guard on the verge of dozing off. He reached for a radio.

            "This is front post, west gate. Got a semi out front." He yawned. "Just thought I'd let you know." He put the radio down and closed his eyes. The back doors of the semi opened slowly, and a ramp dropped out noisily. The security guard opened his eyes and saw a small tank roll out.

            "Shit!" He exclaimed and ran out. The turret turned for the booth he was in and fired, sending debris everywhere. The entire tank rotated ninety degrees and hit full throttle through the electrified gates. The gates yielded easily enough. Showers of sparks came from the breech. Lights around the warehouses flickered, blinked off then came back on when the sparks stopped shooting from the gate. It continued accelerating down the main road of the warehouses. Suddenly, it screeched to a halt, swung it's turret to a wall and fired at point blank, demolishing the entire end of the building. The hatch popped open and a man, covered from head to toe in black, jumped out. He walked straight in, over the debris of the crumbled wall and approached an elevator.

            "Any reason why a dozen of your cameras went off line, Yoshi?" The orc asked. Yoshi beat his fist on a keyboard. He leaned out a door and screamed something in Japanese. Four men jumped to action and ran out of the building. Yoshi turned to the orc, furious.

            "If this man is taken, I will kill you." He growled.

            The elevator stopped. Four men standing before the elevator door fired into the car with eight sub-machine guns. The doors buckled and disintegrated in the crossfire. They kicked them in and entered the car, unloading the rest of the ammunition into the ceiling of the car. When the firing stopped, four blasts came from the floor, killing each man inside. The elevator began ascending again, allowing the man, covered in black, hanging from the bottom to exit. He walked casually down a hallway. As he came close to a T-intersection, he fired into right wall at a forty-five degree angle with a highly modified beast of a gun. As he turned the corner, he stepped over bodies and guns. Soon he came to a door and kicked it open. Inside, he saw Felix shackled to a chair.

            "Are you alive?" The man asked in a high-pitched scrambled computerized voice.

            "My leg itches." Felix replied. The man went to him and pulled the IV that was punched through his suit out of his arm, then crouched behind him and cut the restraints with a small tool. He came back around and hoisted Felix over his right shoulder. He balanced the weight and exited. He encountered no resistance through the hallway or in the elevator back down. Yoshi Shira watched furiously on the functioning monitors. The orc behind him watched indifferently. Yoshi screamed, reached for his belt and whipped out a gun, pointed straight for the orc's head.

"You knew this was going to happen, didn't you!" Yoshi growled. "You junkie piece of garbage, you knew it all along!"

"And what makes you say that?" The orc asked, crossing his arms.

"The one person who can tell me where that bitch is, stolen from me at the perfect moment! There's only one other person who knows where we are, and that's you!" Yoshi cocked the small automatic pistol and took a deep breath. "But I'm sure killing you will be a service to our community. One less drug addict to worry about."

Before Yoshi could react fast enough to pull the trigger, the orc thrust his flattened hand into Yoshi's stomach like a dagger. He pierced the skin and Yoshi's stomach. He stood there in shock, only able to stare at the orc with eye wide with pain. The orc turned his hand and hoisted Yoshi by the bottom of his ribcage until they met eye to eye.

"I don't appreciate being called a junkie, or a drug addict for that matter." The orc explained in a very calm and even tone. "My ability to ignore the burns on my body or the bullets in my chest does not come from a bottle or a line of white dust drawn on a mirror or a syringe or a pill. I have spent more years than you are old, learning the ancient arts from masters hundreds of years old. I have learned from these great men and women how to direct energy through my body, how to bend and flex in ways once thought anatomically impossible, and, most importantly, how to train my body and my mind to stop registering the concept of pain. Which, I'm sure, you wish you knew how to do right now." Yoshi began to tremble and spout blood from his mouth. His irises widened.

"So, when you call me a 'junkie', or an 'addict', you discredit my decades of training." The orc said. Yoshi trembled hard for a few seconds more than fell limp in the orcs bloody hand. The orc dropped him to the floor and quietly exited the building.

            The Trump Card exited the elevator, still holding Felix, and climbed back over the rubble. Suddenly, he took a pace backward and stepped behind a large piece of ceiling. With one hand, he flipped two switches and twisted a small dial on his gun. He stepped back out and fired a short burst at the roof of the building opposite the one he was in. He waited. A long rifle tumbled off the roof and landed to earth on it's butt, discharging a sniper round into the night. He walked to his tank, deposited Felix inside, retrieved the sniper rifle and climbed back in. The engine roared to life and rolled back out the entrance. It climbed back into the semi. The ramp raised and the doors closed. The semi's engine jumped to life and drove into the night with no driver.

            Thirty-three minutes later, the semi stopped in front of the promenade of Bubba's apartment. The back doors opened again. The Trump Card exited, followed by Felix. They walked quickly to the abandoned shop and entered, seeing Bubba standing in the middle of the tiled floor. The Trump Card stopped a few feet in. Felix approached Bubba.

            "Ya alright?" Bubba asked. Felix nodded. The effects of the stuff piped into his veins had worn off. Bubba tossed three credsticks at the black figure in the doorway. He caught each one, bowed and promptly exited.

            "You look wonderful." Bubba said, patting Felix on the back.

            "Thanks. You look like shit." Felix replied. They turned for the hallways.

            "How did you find me?" Felix asked. "And who was that?"

            "He doesn't matter, but Circumstance found you looking through the security cameras. She's messed up pretty bad."

            "I'm sorry."

            "It's not your fault." Bubba said. "She does whatever she wants, and God save the man who tries to tell her different." They turned the corner for the propped open apartment door. As they entered, Doc came out of Emily's bedroom.

            "'Bout damn time." Doc said, a cigarette bouncing wildly between his lips. "How are you with mind spells?" He asked, waving him over to follow him to his loft.

            "Uh, like what kind?" Felix asked, ascending the staircase.

            "Probes." Doc replied. "Total invasion."

            "Never tried any before." Felix said. Doc began to pull books off the shelf and pile them on the floor. He stopped when the stack reached his waist.

            "Read these. You need to learn it."

            "Why?"

            "Circumstance is in some sort of psychotic coma. She won't come out of it until we bring her out."

* * * * * * *

Felix paused. He dropped his pencil on the notebook and scratched his scruffy chin. He picked his pencil up again, erased a sentence, and continued writing. A knock tapped quietly on the bedroom door. Felix didn't answer. The door crept open to a crack.

            "Felix?" Nocturne asked. No reply. She pushed it open all the way and floated in slightly. She called his name again. Nocturne floated in farther.

            "Don't step on the books."

            "I don't walk." Nocturne replied. She smiled, but got no response. She sighed and floated to the bed.

            "Have you changed your clothes?" She asked.

            "I will when we help Circumstance."

            "Have you shaved? Taken a shower? Eaten anything?"

            "I will when we help Circumstance."

            "You can't do this to yourself, Fletch." Nocturne said. She looked over the twins' bedroom, littered with open books and crumpled papers on every available flat surface. "How much longer?"

            "Maybe an hour. Almost done." Felix replied. He scribbled something quickly. "No, I'm ready. Is Doc?"

            "Has been for three days, Fletch." Nocturne replied. Felix closed the notebook, stretched and went around to Emily's room, followed by Nocturne. Emily lay on the bed with Doc kneeling next to her, patting her head with a damp washcloth. Her head had been put back together and the sheets were changed. Emily was dressed in a nightgown. A pair of IVs came from each of her arms, dripping clear liquid into her veins. Doc looked up at Fletch.      

            "You ready?" Doc asked. He smoothed his beard out and stood up.

            "Yes." Felix said.

            "You've read each of them books? Took notes and practiced?"

            "Yes."

            "Ones on ritual sorcery, too?"

            "Yes."

            "Good. Now, begin as we discussed." Doc ordered. Felix closed his eyes and slipped into the astral realm. After a few moments, Doc appeared before him, his aura shining bright orange.

            "Now, bring Circumstance's mind into view." Felix thought to himself. "Slowly, don't let the ego interfere." Slowly, the blackness of the surrounding room brightened to gray then white. As if Felix and Doc were falling, a dot on the invisible horizon grew. Felix started to feel nervous. This wasn't how he read the procedure was going to occur. The infinitesimal dot grew into a swirling mass of smoke. Felix looked at Doc to see his aura fade from bright orange to deep purple; the color of distressing disappointment. He looked at Felix and faded away. Felix looked at the approaching globe as it grew larger and larger. Suddenly, Doc's spirit reappeared, flaming red, grabbing Felix and tugging him away. But Felix didn't budge. He looked at the smoky sphere grow larger and larger. After tugging one last time, Doc let go and vanished. The sphere enveloped Felix.

            Doc sat on the floor, breathing hard.

            "No." Doc whined, on the verge of tears. "You damned kid."

            "What?" Nocturne asked, worried. Doc stood up, shaking. He reached into his pocket, put a cigarette in his mouth. He fumbled and cursed at his lighter. He grabbed the cigarette from his mouth and tossed it away in frustration and held his head with both hands. 

            "Her will's too strong. She's not coming out, and I think she took 'em with her."


	10. Chapter X

Chapter Ten

Felix stood in the middle of an asphalt street, scarred and pocked with cracks and potholes. Broken, boarded up buildings lined the street. It was night, but Felix could see everything perfectly, as if had it's own shadowless light. The sky contained no stars. Nothing moved.

            "Interesting, isn't it?" asked a voice to Felix's left.

            "Lonely." Felix replied. "Like…"

            "Forgotten memories." The voice said. Felix turned to see whom the voice belonged to. An older Asian boy, around seventeen, dressed in a brown janitor's uniform slightly too large and short blue hair looked back at Felix. Felix looked at his own clothing. He was still in his dark gray suit he usually worked in. 

"Or one's shoved away and boarded up." Felix said.

"No, I'm not making a comparison. That's what they are." The boy said. Felix extended his hand. The young man shook it.

            "I'm Virgil." Virgil replied. He let go of Felix's hand.

            "So this is the mind of Emily?"

            "Sort of." Virgil said. He started to walk slowly down the street. Felix walked along side. "Part of it. The part she wants to leave alone, so to speak."

            "Understandable."

            "The monster's roam here."

            "Monsters?"

            "Oh yes." Virgil replied. "Or, I should say monster. Singular."

            "Father?"

            "Yep. You know Emily well."

            "Lucky guesses." Felix said. He stopped. Virgil turned to him. "So what are you?"

            "I take care of the place. Keep it arranged, orderly." Virgil explained.

            "Where is everything else?" Felix asked.

            "Everything else?"

            "Her entire brain can't be broken streets and boarded up buildings. What else is there?" Felix asked. The surroundings changed instantly. Felix thought he blinked but he was sure he didn't. Now Felix and Virgil stood in a clean neighborhood, surrounded by buildings, lampposts, benches, trees, everything one would find on a perfect street straight out of a painting. It was still bright, the sky still evenly black. Felix looked around. He stepped to a sidewalk, followed by Virgil. He looked at blank signs, poked his head in a couple doors and sat down on a bench.

            "Is it always empty?"

            "The street?"

            "Yes."

            "No. It's usually traveled by people. The ones she thinks about, or the ones that float through her dreams. Traveled by her, too."

            "Emily walks through here?" Felix asked, pointing at the street.

            "Yes. Traveling to each place she needs to go." Virgil pointed at a library, a large brick building with a huge white stairs and stone lions on each side a half a block away. "Her analytical ends are there." He pointed to a cluttered thrift store with it's windows blocked by stacks of books and odds and ends. "Her taste for trivia lies there. I seem to be there the most, especially when she's playing that quiz program _AI_ on the trid."

            "Oh yeah? I like that show." Felix said. He looked straight ahead to something he swore wasn't there a second ago. They were two hedges, twelve feet high, separated by an opening three feet wide. "What's that?"

            "My least favorite place." Virgil said. "The hedge maze. I have to keep the hedges trimmed. Every single one, down to the micrometer. She goes there to escape. To hide."

            "The monster?"

            "Whatever she needs to hide from."

            "She's there now, isn't she?" Felix said. Virgil shrugged his shoulders.

            "I don't know." Virgil said. Felix got up and crossed the street for the hedge maze. Right before he entered, Virgil stepped out, blocking his entrance.

            "You stand a good chance of getting lost, and in Emily's state of being, you may be there for a long time." Felix turned and looked at the black sky.

            "So what do I do?"

            "Don't ask me. I'm only the custodian of this mind. You're the one supposed to be coaxing her out." Virgil said. Felix looked at the buildings, wondering exactly what he was supposed to do. He walked across the street again, followed by Virgil. He strolled down the street casually, followed closely by his companion. He turned the corner and saw a theater. It was in a state of minor disrepair. Most of it's large, old fashioned light bulbs were burning. The yellowing back-lit marquee was blank. Felix went to the box office, where Virgil was. He pushed a blank, red ticket through a small semi-circle opening on the bottom of the glass.

            "Enjoy the show." Virgil said, smiling. Felix nodded and entered the theater. It was a small room with two theater seats and a movie projector between them. A small portable screen stood ten feet in front of the seats. Virgil was sitting on the right side of the projector with a tub of popcorn. Felix sat to the left. The light turned off. Virgil reached over and turned on the projector.

            "I'm being serious here!" Emily said to Sparky and Bubba. "Come on, _please help me out." She was much younger, and without the tattoo around her left eye. Sparky was also much younger. His hair was much shorter, but his Afro made him look like a black mushroom in a black leather jacket. Bubba still looked like Bubba, except he was in a brown suit and plaid tie._

            "Emily, I've known you for a long time, and I think you're one of the smartest girls out there, but we're talking about something very dangerous and very expensive." Sparky explained. Bubba nodded in agreement. "I mean, what did you do? Steal a catalog and just copy down the most expensive stuff? Your total comes to over two and a half _million_." Sparky paused to sip his beer. "And, considering you don't come out of this with your brain fried or some Essence-related psychosis, you're just a eighteen year old girl. Four of those years spent in a psych ward! What do you know about running the Matrix?"

            "Sparky, I can't go anywhere else." Emily said. "If I go back to school, everyone's gonna know me as that 'crazy girl'. If I get a job, what am I going to tell them when they ask about a work history? 'Well, besides babysitting when I was nine, I haven't much time to work because I've been in a _fucking asylum!" She exclaimed the last two words, which elicited a couple stray looks._

            "Don't make this a money issue. Dad has enough money in fourteen different bank accounts to buy enough headwear to outfit half the city of Seattle. The grand total on the stuff I want is insignificant compared to all his filthy money. Teaching me the trade will be a lot easier than breaking into the corporations. Safer, too."

            "Emily, I can't!" Sparky exclaimed quietly.

            "I've spent the last four years away from the world, Spark! If you don't do this for me, there's no way I can make it out there!" Emily said. Her eyes watered. "Four goddamned years! There's so much publicity and rumor about me I'll never get an even break! I need to disappear and start again!" Emily dropped her head on the table and sobbed. Sparky growled softly.

            "I, uh, need to go to the bathroom." Sparky said and pushed Bubba out of the other side of the booth. They both walked outside behind the bar. The scene on the screen flashed to the rear of the bar just as Sparky pushed the rear exit door open. Bubba ducked to fit under the frame of the door.

            "Now what?" Sparky asked. He stepped a few feet into the alley and turned around. Bubba stopped two steps from the door and put his hands in his pockets. "How do I make her understand that I don't want her doing this?"

            "Got me, friend." Bubba replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm withholding my opinion on this one." Sparky turned to him. He stepped toward and shook a finger at him.

            "Oh, no. No you don't. You _do _have an opinion. Out with it."

            "Well, I don't see why not." Bubba said, shrugging his shoulders again. "She's got the money."

            "It's not about the money. I just…"

            "She's old enough to make her own decisions. I've only know her for a week, but I think she's strong enough and smart enough to do this."

            "I've known here most of my life, Bubba! Almost all of hers!"

            "Oh, don't give into that."

            "What?"

            "Of course you _care_ about her. _I care about her, too. Don't deny her this because you _care _about her. As a matter of fact, you should be doing this for her because you do care for her! Anyone else would sell her dirty equipment and send her to some gutter trash quack in some back alley, or flat out rob her blind. You and I know a few good people who can do this. The same guy that installed your rigger controls, for example."_

            "God, Bubba, I just don't want her dodging bullets and jumping off of buildings like we do."

            "Neither do I, but you have to let her do what she wants to do, and she wants to buy a lot of cyberware and learn how to run the Matrix like you do."

            The reel of film ended. The end flapped against the projector as the rear reel continued rotating. The lights came on, and Virgil reached up to stop the projector. Felix looked past the projector. There was a large, circular vault door.

            "What's in there? More films?" Felix asked.

            "Yes." Virgil replied coldly. "Hopefully, they won't be shown again."

            "Those are images of…" Felix started. Virgil closed his eyes and nodded.

            "I won't show those reels again." Virgil said. "I've had to watch them too many times." Virgil pulled the reel off of the projector, reached under his seat and took out another film. "I recorded them." He clipped it to the projector, turned off the lights and started the film.

            "Forty-eight seconds, Circumstance. C'mon!" Sparky exclaimed, looking at his wristwatch. Emily sat cross-legged on a piece of cardboard in a tiny maintenance tunnel deep underground. Bubba stood in a freshly dug hole. A wire ran from her head to a small box, which was connected by a thicker wire to the bottom of the hole, which was connected to a wire inside a broken steel pipe.

            "Yeah, yeah. I'm going, I'm going." Emily replied with her eyes closed. "I've got nineteen seconds left. Let me crash this node correctly."

            "I hate to inform you, but we don't _have _nineteen seconds, kids." Bubba said. Flashlight beams danced on the far end of the tunnel. A shot rang out and echoed down the tunnel. The bullet ricocheted once in front of them and once behind them.

            "Oh, hell." Emily said. She pulled the cord out of her head. "We're trapped!" Bubba climbed out of the hole. He lowered his head and rammed into the side of the tunnel. He repeated twice more before the wall gave way. Bricks tumbled into a crowded subway platform. Bubba grabbed Sparky and tossed him out. He landed on his feet and waited for Circumstance. Bubba grabbed her and sent her out the same way. Sparky caught her. Bubba jumped out head first and landed on his stomach, but jumped to his feet and put Circumstance on his back. She grabbed hold of his neck and held on tight. They ran through the crowd, plowing people over too slow to get out of the way.

            "Circumstance! Did you get the codes?" Sparky shouted from behind as he ran.

            "Yeah!" Emily shouted, bouncing along with Bubba. She nearly lost her grip as Bubba tossed his shoulder into a tightly packed group of businessmen. She dug her heels into his back and regained her grip. The scene cut back to the breech of the subway wall. One man, a uniformed Lone Star officer, jumped from the hole and joined another officer.

            "Think you can get her?" The officer asked the one who just jumped from the wall. Without a word, the officer drew his side arm and squeezed the trigger, sending three bullets into the air. The movie cut back to Bubba, the camera was close on his face. His expression changed from one of stern concentration to slight curious confusion. The scene panned back slightly. Emily's hands around Bubba's neck loosened and let go. Sparky managed to catch her before she fell nearly two meters from Bubba's back. Bubba stopped abruptly and turned. Emily was unconscious in Sparky's arms. Her midsection was mangled by the trio of bullets from the officer's gun.

            "Oh God." Bubba exclaimed. He took her limp wrist in his hand and pressed his thumb against the vein. "She's still with us. Get the hell out of here." Sparky nodded and ran for the stairway leading up to the street, Emily in his arms. The two officers ran for Bubba, shouting "Freeze!" and "Get down!" to the crowd. They both had guns drawn. Bubba ran for the two pursuing officers. When the officers saw him approaching, they stopped to shoot, but Bubba met them too quickly. He lowered his head, gored one in the chest with his horns and tossed him in the air like a bull at a rodeo. The second officer squeezed off a burst of shots but missed Bubba. Bubba swung his fist at him and tore the officer's jaw off. Without any pause in motion, Bubba continued on his original path for the staircase up to the street.

            The film faded to black. It stayed black while Bubba and Sparky spoke to each other.

            "I didn't know the Thunderbolt could fire jacketed ammo." Bubba said.

            "Over the counter? It can't. Someone probably took one home and played with it. The thing was meaner'n Hell by itself. But this…" Sparky explained. "How's your back?"

            "My back? Oh, it's fine, thanks." Bubba said. Virgil leaned over closer to Felix.

            "The bullets fired by the officer passed clean through Emily and buried themselves in Bubba's back." Virgil explained. Felix didn't respond and kept his gaze fixed on the black screen.

            "Can you do anything for her?" Bubba asked.

            "I… I dunno. We don't have her covered by DocWagon, that's the real problem. They'd see this and wonder what all the fuss was about." Sparky replied. "I can't grow a section of spinal cord and three vertebrae in the sink."

            "Do you know anybody who can?"

            "There's a guy by the name of Dr. Feelgood who stole a whole load of government grade medical equipment seven months ago." Sparky sighed. "I can give him a call and see if he's actually using it."

            "He is, actually." Nocturne added. Felix wasn't expecting to hear her voice. "Last I heard, he's using the stuff he didn't sell to brew Novacoke in his kitchen."

            "Christ." Bubba groaned.

            "I can't keep this up forever, guys." Nocturne said. "You've got about maybe five hours before the spell wears off. After that, unless she's patched up, she's a goner."

            "Well, I guess that gives us one option." Bubba said. "You suppose Miss Thang is still up?"

            "She'd better be. We need a whole new set of equipment from stomach down, three vertebrae and four inches of spinal cord, and right now, I don't care if it's all flesh or tin. We need something in there _now."_

            The film came to an abrupt end. The screen became bright white and hurt Felix's eyes. He rubbed them while Virgil turned the projector off and put the film away.

            "That is a small glimpse of the person who's head you're currently in. Why she decided to cram her head full of cyberware and why there's so much of it elsewhere, because I'm sure you've asked yourself that." Virgil said.

            "Well, yeah, I did wonder about it." Felix admitted.

            "All magicians do. Guess you guys will never understand." Virgil said, putting his hand to his forehead, acting pitiful.

            "Got anything about me?" Felix asked. Virgil looked at him, but didn't understand his request. "You know, am I in any of these films? Does she ever talk about me?"

            "What grade are you in?" Virgil asked irritably. "Geez, man, wait until you're in third period and pass her a note! 'Dear Emily, do you want to be my girlfriend? Write yes or no.' C'mon!" Felix smiled.

            "Alright, alright. What now?" He asked. Virgil shrugged. Felix got up and wandered out of the small theatre and back onto the street under the inky sky. He proceeded half way down the block when he spied a small building with swinging doors like those found in saloons from the Old West. Felix figured that was as good of place, if any, to look and assess his situation, so he turned for the building and entered, pushing the doors out of his way.           

            "Hello!" The bartender greeted. "Come and sit down! Drinks are on the house!" Felix smiled and approached the bar.

            "C'mon, Virgil, let's brainstorm here…" Felix said as he looked over his shoulder. He saw nothing but the bar. He looked at the bartender.

            "Something the matter, son?" He asked.

            "Yeah, it was just, I was…" Felix said. "Um, now I can't remember."

            "Must not have been that important then." The bartender said. He drew a mug of beer and set it on the bar.

            "No, it must not have." Felix said, smiling, and sat at the bar. He sat there for what seemed to be several hours, drinking beer after beer, conversing idly with the bartender. His face was made up of a combination of every pleasing feature Felix had seen over his life. Felix grew more and more intoxicated as the bartender kept filling his glass. Soon, Felix started to slide off the stool, but caught himself before landing on the floor.

            "Whoops!" Felix exclaimed in a rather sloppy voice. "Nearly killed myself!" He scratched his nose and laughed. His laughter was cut abruptly. He reached for his leg.

            "Okay there, son?" The bartender asked.

            "Yeah, jus' like somethin' bit me."

            "Oh, nothing another beer can't cure."

            "No, I don't, I don't think something bit me." Felix said. He reached into his pocket, but found it to be empty. The bartender dropped the mug right in front of Felix. "Yeah, I had a piece of wood. A splinter of wood. Came from a violin I busted."

            "Oh? Why didn't you tell me you played the violin?" The bartender asked.

            "I did a long time ago, but I was playing this one, and it busted, so I was playing around with a piece of it, and I shoved it in my pocket for no reason, because I was on a job…"

            "Well, you're not working now! Drink up!"

            "…and we had to get out in a hurry because we were being chased, so we wound up at this bar…"

            "Ah, my favorite place. I bet the beer there wasn't as good or as cold as mine!"

            "…but Mystique blew his brains out and we went home and the next morning Bubba and I went to a talismonger but were trapped by the Yakuza and this orc…"

            "Tell me about the orc. What'd he look like?"

            "…so I was kidnapped and Bubba got shot, and then someone got me, and I came home and found out that Emily found me, but she got hurt…"

            "I hope it wasn't bad! A drink will help cheer you up!" The bartender pushed the mug closer to Felix until he pushed it over the edge and dumped it into his lap. The bartender looked shocked and started to look around for a towel. Even though the beer was as cold as ice, Felix didn't even blink.

            "…so Doc and I went inside her mind to help her, and I met this custodian who gave me a tour and we went in a bar and…" Felix looked at the bartender. He saw the cold face of Emily's father.

            "Then what happened?" He asked in a British accent. Felix swiftly grabbed his throat and squeezed with all his strength. Felix's face remained still and calm. Emily's father clawed at Felix's hands, gasping for air. Felix crushed harder.

            "…so I found out what the monster was trying to do, so I killed it." Felix ended. A sharp click came from Felix's clinched fists. The body fell limp. Felix dropped it. He reached over the bar for a towel the bartender missed while he pretended to look for it and wiped his pants off. He swiveled around on the barstool to discover Virgil sitting at one of the tables, playing solitaire.

            "Where is Emily's compulsive stuff? The things she likes but isn't supposed to?" Felix asked.

            "The adult book store?"

            "No. More like manias. Secrets." Felix explained. Virgil dropped the cards and walked out of the bar. He walked half a block and stopped in front of a liquor store. Felix entered. It looked like a regular liquor store would. On the counter was a flame-thrower.

            "How did you know she was a pyro?" Virgil asked.

            "Her personality." Felix said. He picked up the flame-thrower, lit the pilot off of a lighter in a display rack and marched out. The surroundings changed back to the boarded up abandoned buildings.

"I suggest you find a place to watch from a distance." Felix said over his shoulder. He pulled the trigger and sprayed burning fuel on the walls and in the street, watching it catch fire readily. It wasn't long before everything around him was consumed by fire. When fire was all that Felix could see, the fire took on a mind of it's own and closed in on him. Felix could feel the white-hot flames fall upon him, but it didn't matter. He convinced himself they weren't real, or, it wasn't real fire. Either way, through sheer force of will, he continued. Felix continued spraying the flame-thrower at the fire that surrounded him, fighting the beast that surrounded him with the stuff it was made out of. He continued to spray liquid fire and watched until he ran out of fuel. The fire, with nothing to feed upon except it's own excrement of carbon and smoke, shriveled and died. Only ashes remained of the broken, abandoned neighborhood of Emily's memories. Horizon to horizon, all that was visible was charred bits of wood and heaps of black soot. Felix dropped the flame-thrower in a pile of ash.

            "I'm sorry for the mess." Felix said, looking at Virgil.

            "I will be happy to clean it up." Virgil said, smiling. He produced a push broom from nowhere and began to push ashes. Felix turned around and the immaculate street he was on moments before appeared again. He ran into the hedge maze, taking turns randomly, frantically yelling for Emily. He tripped numerous times on the perfectly trimmed grass, falling into the perfect hedges with identical leaves and blossoms. Rapidly he lost his cool, and his confidence was replaced with frustration and desperation just as fast. Suddenly, he turned a corner and tripped into the street. He quickly turned over and looked at the entrance, holding his breath in disbelief. Virgil came into his view, sweeping the street. Felix jerked his view to Virgil, then back at the maze.

            "What's the matter?" Virgil asked, leaning against the broom. Felix moved his mouth, attempting to come up with a reason, but none came.

            "They're just bushes, you know." Virgil said, pointing. "They don't offer much resistance." Felix stood up and approached the hedges slowly. He touched them, then put his hand through one. The hedge behaved just as any twelve foot high shrub would. He grabbed a hold of the base and ripped the hedge out of the soil, letting it topple into the street.

            "I'm sorry about that." Felix said.

            "It's not real. This is all just thought form." Virgil replied, still leaning on his broom. Felix walked to Virgil and shook his hand.

            "It's a shame. It was a pleasure meeting you."

            "Likewise."

            "I won't ever see you again?"

            "Technically? No. You wander through here quite a lot, but it isn't you."

            "I'm flattered." Felix said. He turned for the bushes again, then back to Virgil. "So long." Virgil nodded his head and continued sweeping the immaculate asphalt.

            Felix tore through the hedges, seizing ones in his way and tearing it out of the ground. He stepped on others, breaking them close to the root. Each step, each plant he destroyed made him a little angrier; the way he felt standing in front of the Mexican restaurant as he waited for Bubba. However, it wasn't the anger that was accompanied by feelings of futility, but rather righteousness. Every step closer to the center of the maze reassured him he was winning.

            "I'm comin' Emily!" Felix bellowed, ripping two hedges out of the dirt Emily's mind concocted. He tossed them over the wall in front of him and watched them wiggle like a limp javelin as the fell to the ground. "I'm comin'!" He raised his foot high and bent a hedge forward. Felix charged forward through the opening, but stopped in his tracks. He had stepped into a circular garden. The hedges formed a seamless wall twelve feet tall around the parameter. The grass was perfectly trimmed like a Matrix construct. Small hedges bent into animals and trimmed into geometric shapes grew in random spots, breaking the perfect pattern of the grass. 

In the center of the garden stood a tall and narrow gazebo. Felix walked to it slowly and cautiously, careful not to disturb anyone who might be sitting there. As he approached, he saw that someone was sitting there, just as he expected. Emily. She was balled up on the skinny bench in the tiny gazebo. She squeezed her legs with both arms and buried her head within. Felix approached the entrance and stopped a few feet short. Emily looked up, her face red from crying.

            "Hello." Felix said.

            "Hi." Emily said, her voice raspy.

            "Are you okay?" Felix asked. Emily sniffed, lowered her head and shook it.

            "I can't…"

            "You can't what?"

            "I can't face him anymore."

            "Who?"

            "The monster. I just can't do it anymore."

            "I've killed him." Felix said softly. Emily shook her head again.

            "No, in here." Emily said, then sighed heavily. "He keeps tormenting me and keeps bringing me back to the places I don't want to go."

            "The city? The abandoned one? All boarded up and broken?" Felix asked. Emily nodded.

            "I've burned the city to the ground and strangled the monster that looked like the man they called your father." Felix declared, his voice a little louder. Emily looked up. Like someone exhaling after holding their breath, the gazebo widened slightly, stretching out a few inches in each direction. Emily loosened her grip on her legs.

            "You did that to save yourself." Emily said.

            "Maybe I did. But I tore through the maze to find you." Felix said. The gazebo widened again, stretching almost enough to let one more person in. Emily let go of her legs and let her feet rest on the ground. She wiped her eyes with the edge of her shirt collar.

            "And why did you come in to find me, even after Doc knew there wasn't a chance?" Emily asked. Felix approached the gazebo. He pushed at the edges of the entrance, widening the entire structure to accommodate two people. He took a seat next to Emily.

            "I'm sure that you've seen enough of those cheesy action flicks to know that someone will do some dangerous things to rescue someone they love." Felix said. Emily leaned for him, laid her head on his shoulder and hugged him. The gazebo, the grass, the random topiary, the twelve-foot high hedge wall and the black sky cracked. The cracks spider-webbed and turned the scenery into a trillion little pieces; an inverted spherical mosaic. Then the world shattered around them, replacing the perfect garden with Emily's bedroom, with Felix sitting on the edge of the bed and with Emily sitting up hugging him. Emily let go and looked at Felix.

            "Thanks for bailing me out." They said in unison.


	11. Chapter XI

Chapter Eleven

"I dunno." Doc said. He sucked on a cigarette and held onto it with a shaking hand. "That wasn't the smartest thing to do."

            "Had to." Felix said, sitting on Doc's cot, looking at the floor. He looked up at him in his recliner. He was invisible again. "Besides, I got her out."

            "I should have set up a video camera. You were doing some strange stuff while you were floating around in her head." Doc said. "You were kickin' and hollerin'…" Doc thrashed around in his chair, imitating Felix. He didn't realize he wasn't being seen. "So how is she anyway?"

            "Better than ever, I think. I cleared up a lot of stuff in her head. Least I hope I did. Certainly was a pain in the ass to deal with." Felix said. "But what I want to know is why you had me help you. I'm sure Nocturne is well suited for a job like that, besides the fact that shamans and hermetic magicians aren't always the most magically compatible."

"Yeah, the path of the Owl is really into that all-knowing and all-seeing angle, but I didn't know how long it was going to take. If the sun would have come up while she was screwing around in Circumstance's brain, no telling what would have gone wrong." Doc explained.

"But she's inside. There's no natural light down here." Felix said.

"Doesn't matter. The Owl shaman is pretty damn in-tune with when the sun and moon rises and falls. She doesn't wear a watch for a reason." 

The doorbell rang, followed by the monkey chirping "Who is it?" as it ran for the door. Felix paid no mind until the monkey screamed bloody murder. Obviously it wasn't his brand. Suddenly, a small explosion went off, silencing the monkey. Felix jumped to his feet. Doc instantly became visible again.

            "What in the hell?" Doc exclaimed. Felix dodged through the bookcases and looked down from the loft. A small black crater in the middle of the carpet surrounded by blood and black fur was everyone's focus. Everyone else emerged from their bedrooms or the kitchen and surrounded the area.

            "What happened?" Nocturne asked, kneeling down to observe the area more closely, as did Sparky. Under a large piece of monkey gore, Sparky discovered a small trid disk. It was a brand that won acclaim for it's durability. He wiped it off on his black t-shirt, drawing a streak of monkey blood peppered with bits of fur. He stepped over the couch, turned the trid on and slotted the small disk. The screen displayed PLAY and a counter on a bright blue screen, the flickered to the face of the orc that had been plaguing Felix and Emily. His face was still dressed in bandages. One eye was still obscured.

            "No doubt you know what happened to your pet." The orc said in a low, gnarled voice. "I hired a kid for ten bucks to carry a pack of Colbalt's to your door and drop it off for the monkey. The monkey didn't know it was just enough grenade to spread it around the carpet."

            "This message concerns Emily Post, AKA Circumstance, AKA Celine Kryer, and Felix Page, AKA Fletch, and the death of Yoshi Shira, brother of a second-tiered Yakuza boss for the Shigeda. They have offered me a one million nuyen bounty to bring both of you in."

            "I'd like to see you try, you piece of garbage..." Bubba growled.

            "However, I lack the motivation to go after you myself. I've sold a spell lock and a focus that once belonged to Tomorrow Page to a Swiss foci dealer. The pair, being of very high grade and quality, fetched a price of seven hundred thousand nuyen."

            "I'll kill 'em. I'll goddamn kill him." Felix exclaimed, pointing his finger at the screen.

            "I've used these funds to arrange a contest. The first person, or team of persons to bring me Felix Page and Emily Post will be awarded seven hundred thousand nuyen." The orc explained much like a lawyer would; an articulateness that didn't suit his voice. "These contestants have not been informed of the deal the Yakuza and I have. Which brings me to the purpose of this disk." 

"Bounty hunters can be violent, to say the least, when working. If you surrender to me, I will escort you to the persons that request your presence relatively unharmed. I prefer this solution as it saves me seven hundred thousand nuyen. The contest begins midnight tonight. I will be at the warehouses Felix Page was originally kidnapped from."

"I warn you not to attempt to kill me or cancel the contest, as the Yakuza, who own these warehouses, are extremely territorial and will not tolerate any display of violence they have not previously arranged. If it is eight o'clock, you have sixteen hours. Instructions for your surrender are included in the next track of this disk." The image of the orc froze as the disc ran out of footage.

            "So what do we do?" Emily asked. She stood in the doorway of her bedroom, leaning against the frame. Everyone in the room turned to her.

            "I can't afford to lose two decent runners. We're gonna kill that son of a bitch." Bubba said.

            Emily and Felix stood on a street corner in what seemed to be the very center of Seattle. Thousands of people flowed along the sidewalks in a noontime rush to feed themselves or run a few errands before they were due back to work. Felix and Emily were dressed in their armored work clothes and looked like a part of the faceless mass, except they just stood there.

            "Why did they pick such a busy place to get us?" Felix asked softly, looking at the rushing traffic.

            "If we did anything daring it would get on the news." Emily replied flatly. "Don't talk. I don't want to talk right now." Felix turned his attention back to directly in front of him, slightly more anxious because he thought he irritated Emily. They stood in silence for a few moments. Behind them, watches started to chime in a soft asynchronous chorus of the hour. A short limousine with incredibly dark windows detached from the flow of traffic and pulled to the curb. The back door was opened by a very angry looking Asian man wearing sunglasses.

            "Get in or I kill both of you." He ordered. They both climbed in and sat between four men just like the one who opened the door. Each wore sunglasses and held a gun on their laps. One of them ordered the driver, hidden behind a privacy window, to drive off. The limo crept slowly into traffic, then sped back into the flow.

            The limo continued through the business district of Seattle. As they drove, they passed through the large boundary between the commercial and the industrial sections of town; office buildings were gradually replaced by small factories and warehouses. As they took a left turn down a smaller street, Emily winked at Felix and inhaled deeply.

            Almost instantly, a water elemental appeared. The elemental filled the entire car with water and applied tremendous pressure. Only a space surrounding Felix and Emily by a fraction of an inch was spared from being soaked. The engine sputtered and stalled out. The other occupants inhaled water without realizing it and started to cough, which just made their situation worse. One opened a door, spilling hundreds of gallons of water out onto the dirty street. They were washed out onto the pavement. They laid on the street, coughing and gasping, trying to get their breath back. This made it very easy for Bubba and Sparky to hog tie each of them. After they were all immobilized, Bubba carried one in each hand to a van parked across the street and tossed them in the back. Felix and Emily climbed out, dry.

            "I see Bones finally showed up for something on time!" Felix exclaimed. Bones closed the back door of his van when Bubba tossed the last hog-tied man in. He gave Felix the finger from across the street, shook Bubba's hand and drove off, taking one corner especially tight to disturb the contents he was hauling. While Bubba pushed the limousine to the curb and parked it, Sparky pulled up with an identical vehicle. They all climbed in.

            "Where to?" Sparky asked. He put on a cap that limousine drivers commonly wore, but it looked ridiculous perched upon his nine-inch tower of hair.

            "Shut up and get going." Bubba said. He turned to Emily. "Your stuff is in the seat compartment. Fletch, there's a Viper in your seat compartment. Set phasers to 'shred'." Felix opened the small compartment to find a chrome plated pistol and a pair of long clips. He slammed one clip in and flicked the small switch from one shot at a time to three, just as he saw Emily do a few days earlier.

            "Where's Nocturne?" Felix asked, still examining the Slivergun.

            "She's not very… active during the day." Emily replied.

            "Of course."

* * * * * * *

            "I still don't get it." A man said to the person standing next to him. He tapped the tiny barrel of the Uzi softly against the wall he leaned against. The man standing next to him sucked idly on a cigarette.

            "What don't you get?" The man asked, vaguely interested.

            "How many of us did that guy hire? Fifteen? Right? We got fifteen guys in here, armed with whatever we wanted, to make sure one guy and one girl get delivered from one car to another? And we get a grand a piece?"

            "I guess."

            "A freakin' grand? Jeez, I've done lots harder things for a grand."

            "Maybe these two people are a lot more dangerous than you think." He flicked his cigarette away.

            "I dunno. How tough can a girl be, huh? I knock 'em over in the park. 'Less they got mace, I ain't scared."

            "Shut up." The man, who now lit up another cigarette, said. He nodded over to the entrance of the warehouse, where the limousine entered.

            "Don't be tellin' me to shut up…" The man with the Uzi idly threatened. The other man picked up his sawed-off shotgun and approached the car for a few paces. The other fifteen men also approached the car in a circle that broke at the garage door, all wielding guns provided to them by the orc that hired them. The orc looked down on the small militia from an office overhanging the warehouse floor. Another limousine, similar to the first one, pulled in behind it.

            Before the doors opened all the way on the second limo, the rear window of the first limo shattered as a small rocket designed to destroy light to medium tanks traveled through. It broke through the windshield and exploded, instantly incinerating the seven Yakuza personal inside and thoroughly destroying the car. The gas tank exploded a moment later, killing the four men in the circle closest to the limo. From the ceiling, the fire control system zipped across it's network of wires strung over the warehouse floor, positioned itself above the flaming car and spewed foam over the car until the fire died out. At the same time, the rest of the men opened fire on the limo containing Felix, Emily, Bubba and Felix. 

            "Fires out!" Sparky shouted. "That was louder n' hell!"

            "Shut up and open that moon roof." Bubba shouted back. As Sparky did that, Bubba ripped the rear back seat up and covered the shattered back window. It vibrated as Bubba held it up but did not tear apart. Under the seat were two cartons of a dozen grenades each.

            "Start chucking them apples." Bubba ordered. Emily and Felix each took a box and opened it.

            "This car's bulletproof, right?" Felix asked as he pulled the pin and hooked a grenade out the moon roof and behind him.

            "You bleeding?" Emily asked.

            "Rhetorical question." Felix replied. They tossed all two dozen grenades out the window in five seconds, shaking the entire warehouse with explosions. After the twenty fourth grenade was away and had exploded, they sat silent and listened. They heard nothing from outside except the fire extinguisher zipping across the ceiling.

            "Ready?" Bubba asked the three other occupants of the limo. He reached into the compartment under the back seat and took out his large revolver. He dropped the seat from the back window and pointed the gun out, scanning the warehouse floor for anymore threats. Suddenly, a shot rang out from across the building. Bubba left horn shattered.

            "Got 'em!" Sparky exclaimed. From the front seat, Sparky fired four times out the back window, dropping a man hiding behind a large crate. A long barreled automatic pistol slid across the concrete upon impact with the floor. Bubba sat back, grasping the nub that was his left horn, grimacing.

            "You okay?" Felix asked, looking out the back window.

            "Yeah…" Bubba growled. He fingered his head around his horn lightly. "Feels like my skull is vibrating." He sat back up, opened the back door slightly and kicked it open. All four of them exited the car slowly, scanning their surroundings.

            "Where's the orc?" Sparky asked.

            "The garage door and the door next to that are the only ones in this building. There's one on the roof, but Bones has that one covered from across the street." Felix answered. He wondered if the orc would know if he was lying. They cautiously divided, each walking slowly toward each wall.

            "Where's the stairwell to the offices above?" Felix asked over his shoulder, looking around the charred limousine for anyone hiding behind it.

            "Bubba's approaching them." Emily replied. As soon as she finished her sentence, a man trotted down the stairs, carrying a shotgun. Bubba reacted instinctually and turned around, pointing his back to the stairwell. The man fired the shotgun. A dozen balls of shot hit Bubba's back, shredding his jacket but leaving the Kevlar underneath unscathed. He racked the shotgun again for another shot.

Felix swiveled around and pulled the trigger three times. For each pull of the trigger, three bullets, intact and relatively perfect traveling through the barrel, transformed into twisted piece of scrap metal a few feet away from the gun. The first flechetti round hit the man in the stomach and bounced off a plate in his coat. Five others traveled upward, also bouncing off his armor. The seventh shot hit the man in the base of the throat, the eighth square in the windpipe and the ninth right below the jaw. An explosion of blood and tissue covered the walls of the stairwell. The man fell forward, his head still barely attached by his spine.

"You okay, Bubba?" Felix called. His gun was still trained on the small hallway. Bubba looked up.

"Yeah. It was just bird shot." Bubba said. He was surprised at the look on Felix's face. There was no sign of fear or hesitation; only cold calmness. "You okay?"

"No. Some guy just tried to kill you." Felix replied. "How many shots do these things have in 'em?" He ejected the clip, examined it and slid it back into the base of the gun.

"Uh, yeah." Bubba replied. He cocked his gun and approached the stairs again. Each step creaked loudly as he went up. The second floor was a bare walled hallway, twenty meters long and too small for Bubba to stand up in. He crouched far over and advanced awkwardly, his colossal gun pointed straight ahead as he approached the door at the end.

"I don't see what was so difficult to understand from my instructions." The orc asked through the door when Bubba was half way down the hallway.

"Where's the money?" Bubba shouted. He raised the gun slightly higher, bringing it to sight.

"What? That puny amount those substandard foci sold for?" The orc laughed. "Hardly enough to pay the burn unit. I saved a substantial amount of money considering I cannot feel the pain."

"I don't believe you." Bubba growled. "You've got three seconds before you don't have to worry about some burn unit."

"That's out of the question. I've already collected the bounty for your two friends. It's already been spent. If the Yakuza don't get them from me, they'll kill me and go after them anyway."

"I should save them the trouble." Bubba shouted.

"I'm your best bet! Save your own goddamned skin! Give them to me and you live to go steal another day." The orc shouted back. Bubba fired through the door. The door bent in half and ripped from the hinges but still remained upright.

"I should have known. A troll lacks the mental capacity for logic." The door fell forward, revealing the orc. It appeared to Bubba that he failed to hit the orc, even though the orc was standing in the middle of the doorway. Bubba cocked the hammer again. The orc stepped forward sharply and punched at Bubba. Hundreds of pounds of force contacted Bubba in the chest. He flew backwards, slid down the stairs and into the middle of the warehouse.

Bubba laid there for less then a second before the orc was on top of him, strangling him. Bubba clawed wildly at the orc's arms. He tore away charred flesh and muscle, but the orc didn't budge and squeezed tighter.

"Die motha fucka!" Sparky screamed from the top of the limousine with a gun. With the speed of wired reflexes, the orc raised his fist and struck him with magical force. Sparky doubled over and fell onto the hood of the car, barely breathing. Bubba jabbed at the orc's head with all his strength. The orc launched backwards from the force. In midair, he flipped over and landed on his stomach. Bubba and the orc jumped to their feet.

The orc charged Bubba and punched him twice in the stomach. Bubba didn't appear to be affected. He crossed his hands above him and brought his bunched fists into the orc's head. He fell into a heap at Bubba's feet. Bubba raised his foot to kick him, but the orc took hold of Bubba's stationary ankle and ripped it forward. Bubba fell backwards and hit his head on the limo, denting it deeply. The orc jumped for Bubba. Bubba raised his feet, caught the orc and launched him again. This time, however, the orc was in control of his descent. He flipped twice and landed on his feet.

Felix, now seeing the chance to hit the orc without accidentally hitting his friend, pulled the trigger until it exhausted it's ammunition. Half of the shots appeared to hit. All of them appeared to do significant damage. The exposed flesh of his arms and shoulders was shredded, but amazingly, not bleeding. Felix stood there, absolutely dumbfounded.

The orc looked around. Felix, startled awake, jumped behind a high stack of large crates. The orc leaped forward and ran for the crates, slamming into the stack with his shoulder. The stack creaked and groaned as it slowly tipped. Eventually, the top boxes slid off and the entire stack tumbled into one gigantic pile. Packing hay, injected Styrofoam and hundreds of appliances ranging from portable soy preparers to SuperSpace refrigerators scattered like shattered glass over the concrete floor. Pages of invoices floated down like snow.

The orc stood in front of the stack for a moment, then snapped his head around to see Emily standing, looking at the fallen stack in horror.

"Run!" Bubba croaked as loud as he could from the front of the limo. The orc sprinted for Emily, picking Bubba's revolver from off the floor as he approached. Emily realized what was happening and ran for the stairs with the orc in pursuit. Bubba dove for the orc and tackled him before he could chase Emily. The gun slid across the floor towards the direction Emily ran. The orc squirmed away and got to his feet. Bubba rolled backwards and made it to his feet. The orc stepped forward, kicked high into the air and aimed his heel for the top of Bubba's head. Bubba dodged to the right and caught the orc's swiftly moving ankle in the crook of his arm. With his right fist, he punched the orc's thigh. The sheer force dislocated the orc's hip.

The orc pulled his leg back and hopped backwards a step. Bubba stood there, his guard up and anticipating the orc's next move. The orc put his foot on the floor, shifted his pelvis and thrust down, sending his hip back into joint with a clear, loud pop. No sooner was his leg back into joint did the orc send that same leg up and kicked Bubba square in the crotch. Bubba was now launched. He landed on top of the limousine, curled up and holding his crotch in the most pain he had ever felt in his life. The orc turned and ran the same direction Emily had earlier.

After two minutes, Bubba was finally able to loosen up and move. He struggled to his feet and, with tears in his eyes, walked for the pile. At the edge of the heap, he started to clear away debris. Suddenly, he paused and cocked his head to listen. After a few moments, he jumped to the top of the heap and tossed mangled appliances and shattered pieces of crates in every direction, digging down to the bottom where he found a refrigerator upside-down on the floor. Bubba crouched and knocked on the back. Someone knocked back.

"You've got to be the luckiest son of a bitch on this freakin' planet." Bubba said.

"I certainly don't feel like it." Felix's muffled voice called back. "I've got an instruction manual poking me in the butt."

"I never understood why things like refrigerators need instruction manuals." Bubba replied. He guided his hand against the wall of the refrigerator. Once he grabbed hold of the edge, he hoisted it up to allow Felix to crawl out. Once he was free, Bubba dropped it and sat down on the pile. Felix laid on his back next to him.

"Hard to breathe in there." Felix panted.

"Same could be said about someone's foot kicking your nuts to oblivion." Bubba said as he was clearing his throat. From across the warehouse, Bubba's gun fired. The bullet struck Bubba in the chest, knocking him off of the debris pile. Felix sat up in a quick jerk to see the orc across the room, the 1.3 caliber handgun in his right hand and Emily, seized by the hair in his left hand. She had given up struggling and just clutched the orc's wrist. Felix looked down at Bubba at the base of the pile holding his chest.

"Now I'm the luckiest son of a bitch on this freakin' planet." Bubba groaned. He pulled a hamburger patty sized slug of lead from the middle of his chest. The bruise on his chest steamed slightly. Bubba was much too hurt to offer anymore resistance. Felix looked back up at the orc and Emily.

"I am going to make this _real _fucking _simple!" The orc shouted. He hoisted Emily into the air. Her feet were clear off the ground, her stomach on the same height as the orc's head. "I'm going to kill you, then I'm going to kill her, then I'm going to haul your corpses back to the Yak!" Felix stumbled down the pile and approached them. The orc cocked the hammer quickly and held it out at Felix._

"Ah, ah! If you even get off one shot, I shoot you in the head!" The orc called calmly. "You think you can do it?" The orc lowered the gun slightly, but kept it pointed at Felix. "I just need to know one thing. Seriously now. Why did you run me over? I mean, normal people, smart people, would have either given me a few nuyen or driven away. But you stayed, you got in a few lucky shots, and what has it gotten you, huh? Your parents killed. Your foci stolen and sold. Your friends shot up, and in a couple seconds, you and your girlfriend dead." The orc shook Emily around. "Why?" Felix was silent.

"Why!!!" The orc screamed, raising the gun again.

"I'm not a runner." Felix replied meekly, looking at the ground.

"What?"

"I'm not a goddamned runner!" Felix yelled.

"Inside joke." Emily grunted, holding on to the orc's wrist. The orc shook her again.

"What? That's the reason you're in this mess?" The orc said. He laughed. He waved Bubba's gun around, still holding Emily high off the ground by her hair. "You ain't gonna be nothin' in a second." The orc lowered the gun at Felix. Emily looked Felix straight in the eye. In all the desperation between the two, Felix and Emily communicated an entire battle plan with one glance.

Felix inhaled sharply and cast the most intense strength augmentation spell he could muster on Emily. Emily let go of the orc's wrist and grabbed for his other arm. Despite the immense amount of resistance she encountered from the orc's muscular arm, she pulled his arm towards her and raised her knee to bend his elbow with effort. Emily buried the barrel of the gun in her stomach and used her thumb to pull the trigger. The shot was silent, muffled by Emily's midsection. Most of the blood that was flowing through that region of her body fell, splashing below her noisily. The orc released Emily's ponytail. At that moment, Felix finally realized what happened to Emily and everything kicked into slow motion.

Emily fell to the floor in slow motion. Her feet hit the pool of blood, splashing it in all directions, like little spokes of a wheel, on her shoes and ankles. From there, with blood running from her stomach, down her legs and to the ground, she continued falling until her knees crashed into the ground. When she landed, in slow motion, she looked up at Felix with wide, terror-stricken eyes, and fell to her left side, holding Felix's gaze until she hit the ground. Felix blinked and looked up at the orc.

The orc stood behind her the entire time, a look of sheer disbelief on his face. Half of his throat was torn away by the gigantic bullet from Bubba's gun. The orc knew he was gravely wounded, but maintained the discipline over his body he had perfected over several years of intense training, almost stopping blood flowing from his neck. He reached up and gingerly touched the vertebrae that were exposed with his fingers. He shuttered when he realized what he was touching. He tried to speak, but no sound came from his mouth; only the bubbling sound of air being forced up through his shattered windpipe. The orc, his face still frozen in disbelief, raised the gun once more. His arm lacked the strength to bring the gun high enough to shoot Felix, and his hand lacked the strength to hold the gun any longer. He dropped it to the ground, staggered to the side two steps, and fell backwards. Time flowed at it's regular pace again.

Felix jumped into motion, running as hard and as fast as he could push himself to cover the small distance between himself and Emily. Half way to her, he jumped into the air and hit the concrete with his stomach. He slid for Emily like a baseball player stealing second base. He slowed to a halt when he came face to face with Emily. He rested his head on the cold concrete floor and mustered a weak smile.

"Someone's coming, Emily." Felix whispered, stroking her head. "Just hang on. Bubba will call someone. You'll be okay." The slowly expanding pool of blood crept up and touched Felix's cheek.

"You're not…" Emily started to say. She swallowed and focused on Felix's eyes. "You're not a runner." Felix smiled slightly.

"No?" He asked with a slight chuckle, blinking slightly to allow a tear to fall into the puddle of blood below him. A perfectly round, clear jewel floating on a crimson field. "Why not?"

"That would be implying..." Emily said. She inhaled and began to shiver. "That would be implying… you're a bad person."

"Hang on. Someone's coming."


	12. Epilogue

Epilogue

            The sun, just as it had the past four months, beat down on the Earth with little pity for anyone on it's surface. Felix looked around him at the fourteen other people, dressed in black, wondering if they also felt that the traditional mourning garb could be superceded on days like his. He scratched at the thick beard and moustache. They felt awkward and like they were on the verge of falling off.

            "How you holding up?" Bubba asked. He stood next to Felix in a flat black suit. Sparky stood to Felix's left in a similar suit, except his was leather.

            "I'm gonna freakin' die." Felix muttered back.

            "Emily Post was a young woman, cut down too soon…" The priest's voice from the head of the grave surprised the three. Doc didn't seem to care; he stood under a nearby tree smoking a cigarette. They listened to the pastor's speech until a pair of Asian gentlemen approached them.

            "Don't you have any respect?" Sparky asked, his view fixed on the casket suspended over the open grave.

            "We don't not mean any disrespect, but my friend and myself would like to ask a few questions, if we may?" One of the gentlemen said.

            "No, you may not." Bubba growled through his teeth.

            "Tell us, is that really Emily Post in the box?" The gentleman asked. All three turned to him. "There is a sizable bounty for her capture, dead or alive, and we were wondering if she was, in fact, dead." The other gentleman approached the casket and attempted to lift the lid.

            "Excuse me, young man!" The priest snapped. "Have you no shame?" The man backed off and went back to his friend.

            "What are you trying to say?" Bubba asked in a low tone.

            "Perhaps we can split the bounty with you? Maybe after the service, we come back for the body?" The Asian gentleman said, smiling with a mouth of plastic teeth. Bubba face tightened into an angry scowl. He raised his fist and belted him in the mouth, sending him and each of his teeth rolling down the cemetery hill. The small crowd gasped and started to whisper. The priest approached the group angrily.

            "This is hardly the place for fisticuffs! Have some respect for those who've past!" The priest exclaimed in a whisper. He turned around and tried to finish his remainder of his speech. The other Asian gentleman approached Felix.

            "There is also a bounty for her boyfriend. One Felix Page, if I'm not mistaken." The Asian leaned in on Felix.

            "I don't know what you are talking about." Felix said in an impeccable German accent, his gaze fixed on the horizon.

            "Her boyfriend. You must know, right?" The Asian leaned in closer. It seemed to Felix the man was examining his face.

            "That man was shot by the Japanese Mafioso and burned in a car fire. There are no remains to speak of." Felix replied, and leaned closer to the Asian, shifting his gaze over to look him in the eye. "Now let me mourn for my niece!" He resisted the urge to scratch the synthetic beard on his chin. The Asian remained one second longer, then turned and walked after his friend lying in a heap at the base of the hill. The quiet squeaking of the pulleys lowering the casket into the ground made the three of the turn around.

            "Let's go." Felix said. He walked up the hill to a limousine followed by Bubba and Sparky. Doc flicked his cigarette into the street and got into the driver's seat of the limo. The other three sat in back along side Nocturne. Nocturne wore a pair of pitch black sunglasses with side panels to keep any light from sneaking inside. She appeared blind.

            "This is a rather lovely spell." Felix said to Nocturne in a German accent. Nocturne did not look well.

"May I drop it?" She asked, but did anyway. The wrinkles and pockmarks on Felix's face flattened and disappeared. Felix looked like Felix again, wearing a fake beard and moustache. He slowly peeled them off of his face to avoid removing any skin. 

"I wish you people could have done this at night." Nocturne sighed, rubbing her temples with one hand.

            "Something else is being done tonight." Bubba replied as they pulled off the curb and left.

            "I swear…" Bones growled to himself in a three foot by three foot tunnel, holding a shovel. "I'm gonna kill 'em if he ever threatens to tell my boss about the money again. My Mohawk is ruined." He crawled back a few feet and retrieved a pair of tracks six feet long. He hooked them to the ends of tracks he'd been building through the tunnel. The secured them, picked up his shovel and jabbed the end of the tunnel. A sharp knock could be heard, followed by a muffled yelp of surprise.

            "Finally!" Bones shouted.

            "Careful!" Emily muffled voice called. "My head was right up against that board."

            "Sorry." Bones said. He dropped his shovel and went back for a hook. He hooked it onto the brass handle at the end of the coffin, then pressed a small button on the hook. The line it was attached to became tight and pulled the coffin forward onto the tracks. Bones crawled forward followed by the coffin.

            "I need a drink." Emily moaned inside the coffin.

            "Not until they grow you a new liver, Circumstance." Bones replied. "I'd appreciate your good fortune."

            "Being stuck in a box? No thanks."

            "Clean slate. The only problem is coming up with a new name."

            "So does Felix."

            "Yeah, right. He'll just keep whining about not being a runner." Bones sighed.

            "He'd better not. He's going out with friends of mine tonight to arrange 'funding' for my new organ." Emily giggled slightly. "I guess honest, good-hearted people can earn a living shadowrunning."

            "Fucked up times we live in, Circumstance, but it sure beats flipping burgers."

end


End file.
